Beyond Universal
by Peppermint-Cherry-Publishing
Summary: Everyone was in assumption that Avery was a dweller like Nate. But, her secret was bigger than they could imagine. But, this secret held numerous answers to numerous unsolved questions to the many that had been apart of her life in the past. And now she became another hope for the future to the Commonwealth
1. 1 The painful awakening

Avery wasn't aware of many things when she had awaken. The room was almost pitch black when she opened her eyes. The only source of light she could notice was the sliver spaces between the door and the frame that held it.

When she began to move herself around the bed, her muscles had stiffened so much. She started with her neck; moving her head side-to-side slowly helped the muscles relieve tension. She moved to her arms. When bending her left arm, causing the muscle to flex, she felt a small sting.

She reached over to the spot with her right hand, and felt a tube like object taped to her arm. She traced the tubing for a couple seconds. Leading her to a bag, hanging half-full from a pole. To her, it was an easy assumption that she's in a sort of "medical room."

She focused back to her body as a whole. She worked on her back and stomach area; hips, abdomen and so forth. Her back seemed to be the worst so far. It didn't help that she had numerous troubles with her back before. But, she had eventually worked out the inks

When it finally came to her legs, things had begun to slow down. Her right leg was no issue to her. It hurt to stretch as badly as her arms did. But, nothing terrible. When it came to her left leg, she had complete restriction in movement. Pulling the blanket away and using her hands as her night vision. She had noticed her touch sensed a rigid hardness. From the middle of her upper thigh to her foot was completely casted. Making it obviously impossible to move her knee.

She shook the thought of difficulty away and brought herself back to the sudden moment. She began working her body into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. She steadied herself for a bit, hoping she can keep herself from losing her stance once on her feet. She also went ahead and ripped the taped tube on her arm. She started with both feet flat on the floor, her hands grasped tightly to the edge of the bed.

She started off with putting more weight on her left leg, thinking the cast would help give a little extra support. Half way through, she'd put more weight on the right leg. All seemed well until a sharp pain shot up her right side. The pain had thrown her off balance causing her to collapse to the floor.

She grasped onto her side. She gasped and bit on her lip, trying not to yell so the attention would be kept away. After the pain subsided enough, she slowly lifted the side of her shirt, which revealed a heavy bandage patch on her side. She continued to lay there and rest for a moment.

Her eyes began to wonder in the darkness. She didn't expect to see anything at first, but a pale fixture of light caught her attention.

In the corner of the room, she assumed was a desk and the source of light was a computer terminal. She slowly began turning around and propped herself up with her arms and laid her legs and hips to a side. She slowly began inching herself to the terminal, hoping that it would be accessible to give her answers to some of her questions.

She finally reached the desk. She felt around for a moment and found the base of a chair before her; she followed with pulling herself onto the seat. She slowly moved herself and the chair around to face the terminal, and noticed a desk lamp sitting next to the terminal. A couple seconds of looking for a switch, and she finally had a decent visual of the contents of the 4 walls.

In the opposite corner was the bed, obviously. The bag mentioned earlier was an IV bag containing a bag with the label "radaway" written on the tape part of the bag. Next to it was a night stand. It held a few basic items: clock, empty cup, a pen and clip board.

The corner parallel to her sat a military metal standing-dresser. She figured after completing with the terminal she would rummage through that next.

She began working her way around the terminal. It was password accessible, but with the right key strokes and a few minutes was no trouble to bypass. She rummaged through a few files and electronic documents, until one particular file caught her attention: Patient Zero. All the other files containing patient/human medical information were labeled with a name. She had to be Patient Zero.

With a couple of clicks, the first document opened; Dec 18, 2287 was the title and read as such:

 ** _Patient Zero_**

 ** _Gender: Female_**

 ** _Age: Approx. Between 18 and 22 years of age_**

 ** _Features: Unusual colored hair; a darkish purple that almost looks black. Brown eyes. Approx 5'4". Slim but muscular figure. Tattoo on left wrist: a purple tear drop or rain drop. *See footnote for explanation*_**

 ** _Concerns: high levels of radiation. Medium loss of blood. Head trauma. Left leg broken. Heavy claw mark on right side. Surprisingly still in amazing health with no other concerns. Coma length guestimate at 3-4 weeks at the latest_**

 ** _Possible items of possessions:_** ** _most unsure of._** ** _Numerous gadgets with unexplainable uses, but do not look harmful. Typical cases of ammo. 2 knives. A couple handguns; simple 10mm pistol and traditional laser rifle. An unusual weapon, supposedly called a winchester due to the bullets found. Another unusual gun the size of our middle launchers; name of the item unsure._**

 ** _Cylinder container with a cryogenic chamber attached to it. Was unsuccessful in opening the device_**

 ** _Jewelry: a simple chain necklace containing 3 pendants on it; all 3 holding 3 different colored stones within. Rings; nothing fancy, simple crafts work; several sizes on several fingers_**

 ** _Typical appeal: jeans, leather boots, shirt, jacket_**

 ** _Endnote: *Patient Zero contains a couple items with BoS logo. One being a small tattoo located behind the left ear. The second being a BoS pendant from the early years. Dated 2080; "Avery Hart - second in comment" engraved on the back._**

She continued on through a few more documents, until coming across another document; shorter than the last.

 ** _Dec 27, 2287:_**

 ** _Radiation levels of patient zero are close to disappearing; giving her one last dose of radaway._**

 ** _Paladin Danse and Knight Avery came by to check on patient zero's progress; we are hopeful with her miraculous recovery that she will finally awaken in the next few days._**

 ** _I finally found time to research the possibility of the name "Avery Hart" and relations to BoS. According to historical reports; she was Roger Maxon's 2nd in command, most trusted friend and highly valued assets/soldier to BoS. Her disappearance is unknown. She was granted access for a secret mission and had never returned. She was rumored to be a love interest to Roger Maxson at one point but was not completely confirmed. My assumptions is patient zero may be a descendent to the Avery Hart, but I am not ready to jump to conclusions. Only reason to it at this point is to have the ending history of Captain Avery Hart."_**

"Poor son of a bitch…" Avery mumbled to herself. "You're never gonna get the end to that story."

With it being the last document, Avery had placed the terminals software back to its original form. Even accomplishing deleting the trail her computer techniques left behind to bypass it.

She looked over at the dresser for a moment. Thankfully, with the chair having wheels, getting to it was much easier.

To her surprise, the dresser wasn't locked off. It probably meant that her weapons were being held elsewhere. Nevertheless, she opened it's doors and rummaged around for her things.

She first went to the cylinder shaped device. The item contained in it had been cryogenically frozen due to a period of inactivity, but it was to keep its content safe. Where she came from, it was called a "Mül Converter". It was a fictional creature from a movie she once saw and was then turned to reality thanks to her science smarts.

With a few codes entered, unlocking the cylinder, she slowly opened the canister. For a moment, the creature laid still, slowly thawing out from its cryogenic state, but slowly began to breath and stretch on its own.

The creature struggled a little at first; going through it's own stasis of disorientation, but grew with excitement to the sight of its master and climbed around her with joy.

"Glad to see you're still in better shape than me, Mochi." she whispered softly, scratching the creature under its neck.

She placed the now empty canister down and began rummaging through her things again. Everything other than weapons were accounted for, and for a moment she felt defeated. Until, the realization of the hidden compartment in her boots reminded her of a "treasure" she grabbed the left boot and began pulling away at a bit of the base of the interior; where you place the bottom of your foot. It had revealed a small door underneath. And, just behind that, was the small pocket knife her father had given her.

She gazed at it for a moment, due to the sudden flood of memories that rushed her mind of her and her father. She had not seen him in many years, and even now assumed she was never going to again. She squeezed the knife tightly in her hand for the moment and then hid it in the right space between her thigh and cast. It was perfect timing though because when the door open, she had been greeted with a new face that was now replacing the door.


	2. 2 The unpleasant meeting

The figure in the doorway was dressed in a sort of casual attire; the basic long sleeved shirt, pants and boots were accompanied with black gloves and chest vest with various little pockets. He stood at at least 6-ft tall, shaved head, bulky but somewhat muscular.

"Well, glad to see you're awake." He said calmly with a small smile. "Surprisingly more active than I expected too."

Mochi had a moment of fear and crawled behind Avery's neck and used her hair to cloak him as well.

The doctor stepped back for a moment with surprise from the creature, but then noticed the opened canister on the floor.

"So that's what was hiding in there?" He asked, slowly beginning to step forward again.

"Where the hell am I?" Avery quickly demanded. She didn't feel like beating around the bush much. There were still many unanswered questions for her.

"Well, I guess we can start that way." The man replied. "My name is Cade; title Knight-Captain. I am the doctor on this ship you're aboard: Prydwen."

"Huh," Avery responded. "Glad to know I made it to my designation finally."

"Really?" Cade said with a surprised tone. "What business do you have with the Brotherhood?"

"Please don't play stupid," Avery answered. "I already know of your possible assumption so you're asking the wrong question"

"I beg your pardon? What are you talking about?" He questioned, his words were tumbled a little.

"Again, I know your assumption. Your security protection for these terminals is still dated from the pre-war era." She replied. "But just a fair warning, if you try to tell anyone of it, the evidence you would need to prove was deleted and it sits as if I never touched it. It would basically be your word against mine."

"I see…" Cade replied in a hush tone and slowly closed the door behind him. "Then I guess you may have the answers to my questions as well."

"I bet even if I told you the truth of Hart's disappearance, you wouldn't believe me."

"But you are a descendent at least?" He asked a bit puzzled.

"You could say that." She answered. "From what I can tell you though, Brotherhood of Steel has gone to total shot in comparison of her time served and dedicated to them. Arthur Maxson's actions and orders and a spit in her face and Rodger's from the way I look at it."

"So you know of Maxson?"

"Of course I do. He is the reason for my need to be here." Avery answered. "But the reason why is not of your business at the moment."

"Well, can you tell me about where you are from Miss?" He asked.

Avery chuckled a bit. She rubbed her forehead a bit and put her attention back on Cade.

"Again, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

"Oh?" Cade replied. "And why is that?"

Avery chuckled a little more. She bent forward a little, with her hands together and rested her forearms on her legs.

"Because, you and many others believe it to be a fictional place you'd only find in stories of little green men and time travel and such." She answered, as she glanced over her shoulder to her little creature. "If I especially explained to you how I obtained Mochi, you wouldn't believe me."

Cade was very confused at this point. He was having much difficulty understanding everything she said, since she really couldn't explain much without sounding crazy.

"Well… then if you don't mind, I would like to examine your health properly now that you're awake." He said, throwing every question that he had in his head to the side and focusing on his main task. "If we can get through this without difficulty, then I will take you to Elder Maxson. Do we have a deal?"

She nodded her head. "I'm not one to cause Much trouble. For this moment, there's no reason for me to keep you from doing your typical job."

"Uh, very well then…" he hesitated at first, but then continued. "Let's begin then shall we?"

After an hour of constant medical scans and test and questions, Cade had completed his analysis over Avery's present condition.

"I'm very impressed." He started with. "Even with such high levels of radiation, your body suffered little to no damage. Your blood pressure is normal. Your muscle strength wasn't terribly deteriorated and your wounds are healing well. It may be another week or two before we can take the cast fully off though."

"Good," Avery replied. "Now, have you poked and prodded me enough times that I may have a word with Arthur finally?"

"Elder Maxson," he snapped. "While here and with your presentation, you are to address him as such."

Avery was beginning to get irritated at this point, and began to pull herself to her feet. She stumbled a little at first, but used an item that was sturdy enough to lean against.

"Look Cade. I am a high leader of a colony Called Oasis of Mul. Maxson has shown negativity towards my people and I need to see him NOW." Avery replied. "I almost died out there, getting my ass here. And I'll be damned if I let you or anyone else delay time that could be used to settle the matter. TAKE me to HIM."

Cade stood there in shock. He had never experienced anyone talking to him in such a matter. But, even then, he didn't have any reason to keep her waiting longer and nodded his head.

"Very well then… follow me."

He turned away and walked to the door. Avery stumbled behind a bit but kept with Cafe's pace.

As they headed towards Masons conference office, all eyes were on Avery. Quiet had spread through the prydwen; there were a couple points of mumbling here and there, but she didn't think anything of it all.

They finally approached the door to the Conference office and Knight-captain Cade knocked. He then turned his attention to Avery and briefed her for a moment.

"Last I was aware of, he was in a meeting with Paladin Danse, Scribe Halyen and Knight Nate. Lucky for you to possibly meet Nate and Danse because they're the ones who found you. I suggest no funny business while in there."

As soon as he finished, the door had opened and a woman stood before them.

"Oh my god," she started with, staring with shock on her face. "This is patient zero isn't it?!"

"Yes, Halyen." Cade replied. "There's not much time for chit chat… she's in need of a discussion with Elder Maxson. "

"O-o-of course! Come on in!" She replied, stepping out of their way.

Cade walked in with Avery following behind. Maxson, Danse and Nate all stood up and faced the two of them; Halyen closed the door behind them.

"Knight-Captain Cade." Maxson responded. "What is the meaning for Patient Zero to be out of her quarters."

"My apologies sir. But she insisted that her reasons of being in the Commonwealth." Cade replied.

"Really?" Maxson replied. He looked over to Avery and studied her for a moment. "Well, I guess with her here now, might as well."

Maxson proceeded to walk around the table and approached Avery.

"Hmm." He mumbled, studying her a bit more. "Prettier when you aren't covered in dirt and scratches, aren't ya?"

"Pretty snobbish and big headed to think it's appropriate to speak to a woman like that. Don't you think so Arthur?"she wittingly replied.

Maxson's expression grew to slight annoyance from her answer, but continued with dignity.

"Anyway… is there a possibility of a name for you Miss?" Maxson asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She replied. " I forgot that I didn't even mention it to Dr. Cade. My name is Hart; Avery Hart to be exact."

The room was silent for a moment. Everyone's expression, except Nate's, was now filled with shock.

"I beg your pardon," Nate said, breaking the silence. "But with the shock expression on everyone's face, I'm assuming she's very well known here?"

"Not her per say." Danse responded, his attention now to Nate. "Avery was the 2nd in command and loyal friend to Maxson's great-grandfather and founder of Brotherhood; Roger Maxson. Problem is no one knew what happened to her."

"Is she a descendent of the Avery Hart Cade?" Halyen asked.

"As I told him earlier, you can assume that." Avery answered instead of Cade; her attention now to Haylen. "She is a memory of a distance past, and she lived a good life.

But, as of right now, you will not be getting the answers your crew has been looking for since her mysterious disappearance in the early years." She then turned her attention back to Maxson. Her expression down showing a bit of anger from her eyes.

"Right now, you are my concern. And, to give a fair warning, my concerns about you are very negative because of something you did recently to get here."

Everyone in the room was puzzled at first. They were still in the dark with questioning as to why she was here.

Maxson then proceeded to clear his throat, and kept his attention to Avery.

"Well then, Miss Hart. What is it that I did that has you displeased with me?" Maxson asked, his voice sounding strong and confident in the moment.

"You mean aside from the disgrace you've made of the Brotherhood?" She replied. She watched Maxson's expression turn to anger in the moment but continued. "Well, maybe it has to do with the fact you killed 2 dozen of my own people who didn't bring any harm or threat to yours…"


	3. 3 The abrupt surprise

"E-excuse me?" Maxson stuttered. His eyes filled with concern. "What do you mean I killed your people?"

"Don't play stupid Arthur." Avery responded, walking around the table to the seat Arthur was sitting at before. "When you and your troops were on your way here to the Commonwealth, you flew over an actual green-covered forest. Obviously for curious measures you sent troops down to the ground to investigate whatever you could." She then sat down in Arthur's chair, and continued to talk as she glanced around from one person to the next. "Your troops were ordered to kill on sight; regardless of friendly or hostility… YOU are responsible for the murders of two dozen people from my colony. YOU are the reason their leader in charge risked life and limb to get here."

The others stood around in shock and confusion on their faces. Maxson tried to keep straight, but Avery could sense the fear and anger growing within him.

"Elder Maxson?" Haylen started, slowly walking towards the table. "Is this true?"

"Of course it is." Avery replied for him. She pulled a small square device from under her shirt and slid it across the table. Danse, who had been sitting in a chair the whole time caught it before it fell off. Avery continued, "Hate to destroy your discussing excuse of a leadership as is even more, but even if you denied it, there's enough copies of the evidence that says otherwise."

Danse held the device in both hands. Avery gave him the instructions to activate it. He watched and listened in horror of what some of the BoS soldiers did in the video.

Images were showing a group of people, gather plants or examining plant life in the moment. Sudden gunfire shot out from nowhere and bodies began to either drop to the ground or run in different directions. A couple BoS knight come into view, carrying mini machine guns in their clutches.

"Maxson…" Danse mumbled, watching the suffering and torture of innocent lives fade in the moment.

The video continued. The soldiers search the area for others, and killing any they came across.

Danse slammed the device down on the table in disgust and threw himself from the chair and over to Maxson.

"What the fuck is this shit Maxson?!" Danse yelled, charging towards him.

Cade stepped in between them and was the first to try holding Danse back while saying, "Calm down Danse. We don't need a war to break out right now."

"You filthy son-of-a-bitch!" Danse yelled, trying to push Cade away. Nate comes in and helps hold Danse back.

Halyen tries to sneak out of the room until Avery catches her.

"DO NOT LEAVE!" Avery yelled from the other side of the room. "All of you, are apart of this now, even in the littlest way. And for right now I plan to keep it as such. Under several conditions obviously."

They all turned their attention to her. Danse still stood there in a rage as he began to speak.

"I'm assuming you're reason for being here is to kill all who are involved?!" Danse asked, now charging over to her.

"Please." Avery started, chuckling a little as she secretly began to slide the knife she had hidden in her cast earlier. "If I wanted to kill him, then my intentions would include my life being lost as well and then that would leave my community to perish without an order for next leader. Unlike your leader, I'm not a fucking idiot."

"Then why the hell are you here?!" Maxson finally spoke. He had choked on his words a bit as he did so. "In my eyes, you seem like a ducking idiot to not have the want to murder me for what I supposedly did."

"Supposedly is not the word here Arthur!" She snapped back, pushing herself out of her chair and faced him. "You know damn well what the fuck you did and you're mortified and embarrassed that you're little secret is out. And judging by Danse's power armor, you're little secret was revealed by a Paladin."

"Then what is your reason for being here Ms. Hart?" Nate asked, keeping the most calm out of all of them. "If your reasoning for being here isn't to kill Maxson, then what is it?"

Avery's attention was on Nate for the moment, and then returned to Maxson before speaking.

" I am here, because I am willing to give you a chance to prove yourself." She said as she slowly sits back down into the seat. "But from the looks and sounds of it, you're gonna need as much help reforming Brotherhood to its true glory."

"Excuse me?!" Maxson snapped. "There is nothing wrong with The Brotherhood of Steel."

"WRONG!" Avery snapped back. "The shape that Brotherhood is in is a disgrace to Rodger and the former Avery. Your little antics and games is a spit in the face to their legacy."

"How dare you disrespectfully discuss of my great-grandfather in such a tone!" Maxson fired back. "You have no right to talk about him in such a manner!"

"I sure as he'll do because I AM the former Avery Hart!"


	4. 4 memories and mending

Everyone stood there in silence. They were having a troubling moment understanding what Avery just said.

"W-w-wait a minute." Halyen chimed in, breaking the silence. "How the hell is that even possible?!"

"It's not, Halyen." Maxson interrupted. "She's just fucking around with us."

"The only ones who know of the Mission she was sent on was High Elder." Avery added in. "The history of the information is restricted to an extent from the rest of the crew. Only Elders who come into power know of the information about a quest mission."

"What are you saying, Avery?" Nate questioned, confused with everything that's going on. "If you're this 'Avery Hart' that they seem all worked up about, then that makes you about as old as I am?"

"Not exactly sure your reason. But if you're almost 300 years old, then yeah…" Avery answered. "But that means I have the answer about the mission only Arthur would know of. So, if you don't mind, I need to speak with him alone for a moment please."

"No way in hell am I leaving you alone with Maxson!" Danse butted in, storming towards Avery, his hand on the gun strapped to his side.

"Stand down Paladin!" Maxson ordered. His eyes fixed on the floor.

"But, Maxson?" Danse questioned.

"I Said, Stand Down…" Maxson ordered again. "Please, I need you and the others to wait outside for me. I do wish to speak alone with Ms. Hart."

The others did as Maxson asked. They didn't bother putting up another argument with them and left the room.

Maxson eyes watched as his soldiers left the room. When the door finally closed behind them, his attention was now on Avery.

"So its true…" Maxson started with, his tone soft and gentle as he sat across from where Avery was standing. "My father and his father didn't believe the stories, and for a while I didn't either. But, if you can assure it to me, then you've come along way Ms. Hart."

Avery nodded, and took the seat before her again. Her hands were clasped together as she rest them down on the table.

"It wasn't a mission. Roger and I did it with the intentions of my safety." She began with. "If it was ever mentioned, and it lingers in your mind, I did love him. But, I was a danger and threat to Brotherhood around the time."

"And what of the Oasis?" Maxson asked, his eyes filled with such curiosity. "Is this a reality, or is this of the Legends everyone knows of?"

"Oasis is real, yes." Avery answered. She pulled her arms back and leaned back in the chair. A small smile appeared on her face. "Rodger and I took it upon ourselves to search for a new place brotherhood could call home. But instead, it turned into a sanctuary for those looking to survive."

"Then, what was the reasoning behind your disappearance?" He asked. "I know that your leave was due to a threat, but it didn't explain clearly as to why."

Avery glanced off to her side. She began losing herself in the moment to think. She then let out a sign and gave her attention back to Maxson.

"Rodger and I had to eliminate a terrible threat…" she started. "We had made it to Washington D.C. on one of our travels and came across some very disgusting things our government had done…"

Avery paused for a moment, and began fighting back tears. Then continued.

"Those sons of bitches were part of the reason your world is what it is…"

"Wait, my world?" Maxson said confused. He sat silent for a moment and then looked back her in shock. "So… it's also true…

"That this isn't my universe?" She finished for him. "And that around the time I met Roger, I should have been about 80 years old?"

"Well… yeah." Maxson replied. "But, I don't understand how that was possible. When we all ready the past reports of Elders before us, we all had assumed Roger was crazy for sometime. We still worshiped him like a high superior next to God… but, the idea of someone being from a completely different universe sounds like it's missing about little green men and U.F.O's."

"Well, technically it is." Avery replied. She smiled a little, with the sudden memories of her home life running through. "But they're more than just little green men, Arthur."

For sometime, you'd think she'd forgotten about Mochi. But, her hand slipped into the tanglement of her long hair and slowly pulled the Mul creature out.

Maxson sat in awe as Avery continued on.

"There were also creatures like him. There were aliens we had discovered in our universe… there were many amazing things in our universe that you wouldn't believe have existed." She finished, gently scratching Mochi under his chin.

"Have? What do you mean have?" Maxson was still in a state of confusion. "You mean, you haven't been back to your home universe all this time?"

Avery's smile disappeared with Maxson's words. Her eyes swelled with tears, but she flung them away as if it was nothing. She returned her attention to Maxson.

"No… I haven't because the device needed to has been damaged…" she answered. She pulled Mochi into her lap and leaned back into her chair. "I have a possible idea who maybe behind it, because they sound like the only ones intelligent enough to understand its functions and parts… But just like you… I don't know how to get in there…"

Maxson's expression had frozen. His face had suddenly grown pale with what Avery had said.

"You're… you're talking about The Institute, aren't you?"

Avery nodded, holding Mochi a little closer to her. She bit her lip a moment, trying to process things she was about to address next, but then steadily explained the matter to Maxson.

"I have a sense of understanding your ideal hatred towards the institute. But let me be clear of this, Maxson." She set Mochi down on the table and leaned on the table once more. "I am not for the idea of killing any synth unless they are hostile towards me or my people. Our hatred for a common enemy is upon the fact that they are kidnapping subjects for their experiments and the high possible chances of their tampering with technology."

"So, where do I stand on the matter?" Maxson asked as he leaned back in his chair.

"Simple, really." Avery answered. "You allow me to use your resources to not only get into The Institute. But, to also discover the possibility of building the device I need to see if it's possible for me to return to my universe."

"How is that simple?!" Maxson began raising his voice. "You've been here for over 200 years. There could be nothing waiting for you there if you went back."

"I know that, and that's why I didn't say I was returning." She assured him. "I mean, there is a decent chance there could be others from my science facility still living, like me. But, just to know that it was possible will be decent enough for me now."

"That's another thing," Maxson added. "You never explained to me how you've been able to live so long like this?"

"It's a very long story, but all I can say is that is a specially made medical serum that was meant to help kill cancer cells. But it did that and then some." She continued to explain. "My father was growing ill from stage 3 brain cancer… and I sacrificed my own health to test the serum before giving it to him. Again, it worked perfectly. But. The dosage we used was too much; we didn't know this though until my father reached 100 yrs old without any health complaints."

"How old were you when you took the drug?" Maxson asked.

"I had just turned 19…" Avery stopped for a moment, thinking if she should be careful of her words. But instead went straight forward with it. "Around that time, I was going through a very dark moment in my life… I thought I was living the rich and fame life perfectly. But, when friends became enemies and what I thought at the time was the disapproval from my father, it was a terrible fall down the rabbit home. To cut it shortly, I was already on the verge of suicide, and I thought that if it killed me that I would die for a good reason."

"But then how did you find out it worked?" Maxson asked.

"They injected me with a strain of cancer." She started. "But it didn't just kill the cancer. It completely cured me of my dark time. I was no longer in an mental emotional pain. It was like everything was suddenly clear to me now. But when my father reached over 110 years old without any issues is what really concerned us… I really don't want to get into a lot of details right now. But after some research, and several conversations with government officials, me and a good two dozen people were granted permission to use this drug because we were the smartest scientist that were useful to our universe."

Maxson sat there, putting all of the pieces together in a sudden moment. He stood up and slowly began pacing back and forth.

"I-I-I'm sorry… we kind of got sidetracked a bit." He said, shaking his head a little before sitting back down. "Now, what is your proposition that you're wishing to make with me?"

Avery looked up at Maxson. She thought carefully this time about her choice of words and proceeded.

" any piece of technology you find or 'confiscate for destruction', can actually be useful. I've seen enough of the U.S. enough to where they really need help in the right direction. You help me by supplying with tools and letting me see these devices, I'll help NoW and everyone on the Commonwealth advance in the direction they should be. Reasonable enough?"

"Hmm, I don't know?..." Maxson hesitated for a moment. "There are still so many unanswered questions that still need answers."

"And overtime you'll get then." Avery assured her. "But right now, you need to make yourself right by me after all your bullshit. This is a way that makes it easy for us all, and leaves your head still attached to your body." Avery then reached her hand out to Maxson. "So, do we have a deal?"


	5. 5 More so bitter than sweet talking

"So that's it?!" Danse yelled from across the table. "You're buying into her bullshit over some past story?!"

"She is the great-great-granddaughter of Avery Hart, and is named after such." Maxson lied to Danse. If it wasn't for reasons behind it, he wouldn't be lying to his most trusted soldier. But, even Maxson agreed at this time, that such a secret would be best left alone until needed. But he continued on as if it were truth. "With that, I am obliged to treat her with the same pride and dignity as I treat you and the other soldiers."

"This is ridiculous!" Danse yelled, slamming his fist down on the table in anger. "There is no way in hell that I'm going to treat her as an equal! For all we know, she could be lying to us about everything!"

"Stand down Danse!" Maxson yelled to him. He then took his seat and pulled himself closer to the table. "Look, I can understand your state of concern with how very little information you have access to this. But, with having the institute as a common enemy, our work together will be a very important asset to us."

"How the hell do you know she's even telling the fucking truth?!" Danse continued raging. He slammed his fist on the table once more and waved his hands around with the words he spoke. "Just cuz she came in here with a damn dog tag and some dinky ass tattoo of the Brotherhood logo, you expect me to and everyone else to buy into that bullshit?!"

Maxson began to grow impatient with his Paladin. But, he did his best to keep calm and to keep Avery's true secret hidden.

"Danse, when you get time, go see Proctor Teegan for a damn history book that has information of our second in commands and find the damn painting plaster of her in there." He snapped at Danse. "Either way, you WILL do as I say. And if I say for you to assist Ms. Hart in anyway. If I ask you to become buddies with her. Fuck, if I even ask you to scrub the god damn earwax from her ears, you WILL do so. Is that clear Paladin?"

"This is ridiculous Arthur you can't be -" Danse started, until Maxson cut him off.

"I Said Is That CLEAR?!" Maxson was now out of his seat and within inches of Danse. He wasn't taking no for an answer much longer.

Danse stood there. Anger read clearly on his face and the tone of his skin made it clear his full feelings for the situation before him. But he sighed with a huff, and stood in command and said, "Yes sir, Elder." He then proceeded to step back and gaze out the window of the office and down at the Commonwealth.

"Good," Maxson replied as he sat back down into his seat. He sat there quietly for a moment to collect himself, and then proceeded.

"Now, Ms. Hart will not be staying upon the prydwen while here." Maxson began to inform him. "She herself is a leader of an outside colony, that she will have to return to from time to time. But, when she is here, we help her out in anyway she needs. And she will be sure to do the same for us."

"Pardon me Elder Maxson," Halyen intervened. "I don't mean to sound like I'm siding with Danse and his outburst a moment ago. But, I do have to agree with him. How do we know that the rest of us can trust her, only based on what she told you about information only you're allowed to know?"

Maxson sighed, leaning back into his chair for a while and then proceeded to remove the glove on his left hand. The removal greeted the others with bandages wrapped around the palm of his hand. They were mildly covered in blood, and showed the need to be re-dressed.

"You made the unbreakable vow, didn't you?" Halyen said in shock. Danse had spun around quickly to the sound of those words and looked at Maxson with surprise.

"If I didn't believe her, I wouldn't have risked it." Maxson used as an answer. He proceeded to pull open a drawer and pulled out bandages and a pair of scissors. "While you're here, and we continue to discuss things, can you please correctly dress this for me?"

"You mean she didn't bother helping you dress it?" Danse smarted to him

"No, she did." Maxson said, adjusting his seating position to make it easier for Halyen to dress his hand. He chuckled a little in the moment. "Not a secret I have to hide. But, my great grandfather told me stories or rodger and the first Avery. Apparently her and the current Avery can't dress a wound worth shirt for shit when someone is gonna wear a glove."

Halyen smiled a little as she tended to Maxson's wounds. Nate opened his mouth for the first time in the moment.

"So, how long will it be until she's even able to travel?" Nate asked. "I mean, I know she's had that cast on for at least 3 or 4 weeks now. So, surely she'll be getting out of it soon?"

"Knight-captain Cade informed me that it would be at least one more week before it was removed." Halyen answered as she finished with Maxson's bandages. "Even then she'll have to take it easy for another week before she can go and get herself killed again."

"And regardless of time, I wanna be sure that all of you are doing your part to include her here with us." Maxson added. He flexed his hand a few times, then thanked Halyen as he slipped his glove back on. "Just like Danse, most of the crew is not fully convinced that she has what it takes to be here."

"That's because she doesn't, Maxson." Danse abruptly blurted out. "And she never will be."

"I've had enough of your attitude Paladin Danse!" Maxson yelled as he slammed his fist on the table. He then pushed himself out of his chair and went towards Danse. "For your little temper tantrums, I am placing you not only on lockdown on the Airport. But, you will be spending amazing quality time with Ms. Hart. You will show her the ropes and maybe she'll show you some common courtesy. I will not tolerate this shit from you any longer! Is. That. Clear?"

Danse stood there in surprise, and then couldn't control the things he had to say.

"Are you fucking serious?!" He started. "I am your highest ranking soldier here! And you're going to trust a random nobody claiming bullshit over me?!"

"Any more lip from you and I will demote you back to Knight!" Maxson fired back. "You are acting like a disgrace to the Brotherhood, and especially with the title of Paladin! Now you either shape up your attitude or I will shut that shot down faster than you can blink at me! ARE WE CLEAR SOLDIER?"

Danse was at a loss for words at this point. Anything he said to Maxson only made him even more upset.

He took in a deep breath, let out a deep sigh and answered with, "Yes, Elder Maxson."


	6. 6 Locked down by choice

Avery still couldn't do much with her in a cast, so she stayed abord the Prydwen during the wait time. A lot of the soldiers continued to treat her either as if she was invisible or that she will never be accepted as one of them. This bothered at some moment, for she missed having a conversation with people. But, she continued to keep to herself as much as possible instead of making the others despise her more just for talking to them.

One of the things she wished to do was work on her gun while aboard. When she was out in the Commonwealth, in what she thought was going to be her final days, the weapon she brought with her had jammed in the process and actually caused a couple other issues with the gun. Thankfully with heavy discussions with Maxson, and agreeing to be cuffed and chained to the work table and have her ammo taken away, she was allowed to work on what she called an "Ameli"; a heavy machine gun-like weapon that caused a good case of damage. Still couldn't take a deathclaw or muilerk* queen down as fast as anything else, but it was plenty enough to get the job done.

As she sat there with Mochi resting on her shoulder and taking her gun apart from beginning to end, she could sense the eyes of every soldier that came through upon her. It eventually started to become too much for her; it just made her feel terribly uncomfortable to be in the room. But she agreed, let alone came up with the idea of being cuffed, if it made them feel safe enough that they didn't have to have a gun drawn on her at all times. But eventually, Nate had aboarded the ship, and stopped for a chat with Avery.

"Must be exciting to be the center of attention huh?" He asked sarcastically as he pulled a chair up to the table.

"Sure, we'll say that." She responded, her focus on the fund's barrel that she was trying to clean out. Mochi suddenly scurried to the back of her neck and hid in her hair again. "Even with the cuffs being my idea, I hate how they can't seem to find me trustworthy."

Nate laughed a bit when he watched Mochi. He then got himself comfortable in his chair and pulled out a cigarette.

"It could be much worse. You could be a super mutant or a ghoul. You could also be a synth; either way you would be shot down in a second if that was the case." He said as he lit up the cigarrett and took a few puffs.

"Please don't talk so disturbingly like that." She asked, looking straight at him when she spoke. "From my history, there are things far worse than this that you can't imagine. Upon the fact, in my colony we have super mutants and synths living among us."

"I'm sorry," Nate replied, feeling a little embarrassed. "I didn't mean it to be funny… I was being serious about that…" Nate took a couple puffs of his cigarette and continued. " Brotherhoods idea is to also cleanse the Commonwealth of mutants, synth and ghouls."

"I know that," Avery said with a look of disgust on her face. She then turned her sight back to here weapon and continued with it as she spoke. "That's why I hope, with my return, I can put things right again."

"Wait, what do you mean 'return'?" Nate said as he finished his cigarette. "You mean you've been apart of brotherhood before?"

 _"Shit"_ Avery thought, realizing she didn't watch her words carefully. But she did work her way around it.

"In a sense, yes… but I can't say much to why." She answered without a stutter or missing the right words.

"Does this hsve to do with the secret only you and Maxson knows of?" Nate asks, leaning forward towards Avery and observing her every move.

"Yes, it does." She answered as she placed one part of her gun down and picked up another. "But, if it helps a bit; with me helping you guys get into the institude, everyone will eventually know of it."

Nate sat there, not really sure what to say at this point. So, he just continued to watch Avery as she worked on her weapon.

"What kind of weapon is that exactly?" Nate asked, noticing it wasn't like anything he had seen before; both in his past life and future.

"My own creation." She lied. True that even from her time it was fairly unique with only a few made, it was a fictional weapon that she worked hard to bring to reality. "Called an 'Ameli'. Probably the best weapon anyone can have."

"You build That?!" He said with surprise. "That's pretty amazing!"

Avery smiled a little from his words, and glanced at him for a moment.

"Thanks. Glad to see somebody around here appericiates my brilliant mind."

"May I ask, where you learned such a skill?" Nate followed with. He had become very interested in her in the moment. But, he didn't expect the moment to suddenly turn grey.

Avery paused for a moment with a small frown on her face. The answer to Nate question suddenly displayed images in Avery's head of her past life.

She swallowed her sorry for the moment and continued working on the Ameli and answered his question.

"My father was a Soldier… and even before I was in school he thought his only daughter needed to know how to use a gun." For a moment, even though remembering brought her some pain, there were good ones that had her smiling in a moment. "Most girls my age were worried about dolls and make up. I was working on guns and disecting the fish dad had caught on his days off from work."

Nate smiled a little as he spoke back to her. "You're not much of a girly girl huh?"

"Well, yes and no." She answered, switching to another part of the gun to clean. "Yeah, when I was younger, it was all sports and mud and bugs and shit like that. But, that becomes common when you're the youngest and only daughter out of 12 kids."

"Wait, you have 11 brothers then?!" He interrupted her in the moment. "Holy crap. You must habe had someobe hiding when you were out with a boy huh?"

Avery chuckled a bit to Nate's response. She remembered the couple occasion where the case was true. One being when her 3rd oldest brother followed her and a date to the drive-in. The other being an out-of-state convention.

"Well… a couple times yes…" she answered. "But, at the same time, with so many brothers and then a military science guru like daddy, dating wasn't a common thing."

"I don't see how really." Nate said. He then began to blush a bit before speaking again. "You're a beautiful young lady. Hard to think the guys weren't chasing after you."

Avery chuckled a bit more; her face growing pink a little bit.

"Hate to tell ya, but you look a little out of my age range sweetie." She smarted to him. Putting a few more pieces together. "I'm not too keen on dating older guys."

Nate laughed, leaning back into his chair again and pulling out another cigarette.

"C'mon. Surely 240-ish years old is that old for ya."

Avery stopped all of a sudden, catching what he just said. She was confused in the moment, so of course she had to ask.

"You're over 200-years old?" She asked.

Nate looked at her, confused at first but then nodded.

"Figured Maxson would've mentioned it, bit yeah…" his smile now faded away a bit. "I was born before the great war… my wife, son and me were apart of vault 111." He stopped for a moment, chocking back his words. But Avery continued for him.

"You were apart of one of their fucking expirements." She answered as she set the parts down and looked directly at Nate.

Nate nodded. Tears were starting to swell in his eyes a bit.

"My wife… my wife died… and my son…"

Nate was leaning on the table now; elbows to the table and his hands on his face. Avery reached over and grabbed one of his hands, squeezing it tight.

"I'm so sorry for you loss, Nate…" sue started with to try and make it less painful to him. "At least… at least you know how they went."

Nate looked up at her in the moment, using the other hand to wipe the tear marks away.

"My son's still alive actually…" he surprised her. It made her feel guilty at first, until he continued. "Or at least I'm sure… while we were in there, someone temporarily deactivated the cryo pods. My wife had our son with her… I'm still trying to figure out the why, but they took him for some fucking reason." He slammed a fist on the table and pulled the other hand away from Avery's to cover his face again.

All Avery could do in the moment was stare. She wasn't exactly sure how to make him feel better, since her pain of not knowing was on a much deeper level than his. But, it didn't stop her from trying.

She reached over and pulled both of his hands away and held them tight.

"Nate…" she whispered to him. But his direction was still away from hers. "Nate, look at me for a minute."

He tried to resist at first, but eventually his eyes met with Avery's. They were now swollen and bloodshot from the crying.

"I made a promise to help the Brotherhood. That means the same applies to you." He said to him calmly yet devotedly. "When you want it obviously. But, you have my word that I will help you when you need it. Alright?"

Nate tried to force a small smile, and nodded at Avery. He gently squeezed back onto her hands, and then tried to relax with some deep breathing.

"I don't think you'll have to worry about getting on their good side Avery." Nate said, trying to change the subject and mood. "You look like a dedicated woman who keeps true to her words."


	7. 7 New friend, New Neighbor

"How much longer are we gonna be out here?, Danse complained. He and Nate were keeping their eyes opened of their surroundings as Avery examine the dozenth or so motor bike they came across that day.

Ever since Avery had her leg cast removed, she was granted permission from Maxson to begin exploring the commonwealth again. Her first goal was finding her own transportation back to Oasis when needed. She hoped with the abandoned motorbikes scattered around the Commonwealth, she'd probably be able to get one running again. Be an amazing accomplishment since Avery's arrival to the Commonwealth and an amazing sight for the citizens to witness for the first time in almost 200 years.

Avery sat Indian style on the ground as she picked and pulled at the bike. All day, her, Nate and Danse had been roaming around the Commonwealth gathering parts she would need to make this accomplishment. They had already found the base for the bike she could use, the needed parts were all that was left.

"Just a couple more screws, and then we're done for the day." Avery answered, holding a screwdriver in one hand and holding parts and wires in the other.

"Well we may have to cut the couple screws and get out of here." Nate added, his eyes darting from one direction to another. "For once I'm with Danse on this shit, and today has been a waste of time."

"I'm sorry but I need this part for the bike" she snapped back. "I can't start a bike without a starter. And this is the only one I've come across intact so far!"

"Well screw the shit out of those screws faster and Let's GO!" Danse replied back in a loud whisper

Within another minute or so, Avery had finally removed the starter from the bike. She stood up and began placing the part into her bag as she gave them the ok to leave.

But, just as they were about to leave, gun shots rang out from another direction along with yelling.

"Should we check it out?" Nate said, his gun point forward.

Avery didn't bother answering right away. Her weapon was off her back and in her hands as she began sprinting towards the noise.

"Avery!" Danse yelled. He and Nate began to chase after her." You can't just go storming into a fire fight like this you idiot!"

Avery didn't pay much attention to Danse as she rounded the corner of a building and her gun pointed up as she did. Danse and Nate weren't far behind.

They stopped when they were close enough to the source of the noise. They carefully peeked around the corner to check on the commotion. They came to find a woman standing on top of a semi-truck that had been surrounded by feral ghouls. Nate spoke up when he noticed the woman.

"Shit, that's Fahrenheit." He whispered to Danse and Avery.

"Who the hell is that, exactly?" Danse asked, getting a closer look at the scene with the scope on his gun.

"She's one of Hancock's big body guard types." Nate answered.

"And who the fuck is Hancock?" Avery asked this time, looking up at Nate.

"Mayor of Goodneighbor." Nate answered.

"You mean that little trash town for raiders and ghouls and shit?" Danse asked, his voice now stern on his words. "Fuck that. She can get herself out of this mess."

Danse began to turn around and walk away. Avery grabbed onto the collar of his power suit and pulled him back.

"She needs our help Danse!" Avery growled back at him. "We can't just leave her here like this. She looka like she's injured."

"Well its not my fault she's a criminal who supports even the Humane ferals." Danse replied, turning to face her. "Amd since you're so hell bent on running off into danger, why don't you go help her?"

Avery looked at Danse with complete disgust. She couldn't believe that even in a case like this, he would turn his back on any living person that needed it.

Avery loaded a clip into her gun as she continued to talk.

"Just remember Danse; it's fuckers like you who give the Brotherhood a terrible rep." She aimed her gun steady from the distance, ready to fire. "Hope you're proud of yourself you god damn tin can."

Avery headed towards the pack of ghouls, mowing them down in a heart beat with her gun.

They all turned their attention to her as she continued to fire. They snarled sand screeched as they approached her. But, even those who were just inches away, never got the chance to touch her.

Nate and Danse walked from a distance. Nates expression of fear grew more and more until he started heading towards the ghouls. Danse grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing soldier?!" He asked.

"If you're not going to help her, I will damn it!" Nate replied, jerking himself away from Danse's clutch and running to the battle ground occuring before them.

Nate came in with his gun blaxing, taking down a few ghouls that barely snuck up behind Avery.

Danse had stood there for a moment; he didnt want to be apart of what was going on. But, guilt had finally settled in and finally joined Avery and Nate in the fight.

Within a few minutes, all the ghouls had been taken care of. Avery had begun to climb on top of the truck as Nate called out to Fahrenheit.

"You alright up thete Fara?!" Nate yelled as he got closer to the truck.

"Yeah, thanks to you and your buddies Nate." Fahrenheit called back to them. She sat on the top of the semi's trailer, grasping onto her leg as Avery climbed up to meet her.

"How bad is it?" Avery questioned, assuming Farhenheit had injured herself in the ordeal.

"Don't worry." She responded, revealing her leg to show a small scar, but heavy swelling around the ankle. "Just twisted it really good when I was making a run."

Avery strapped her gun onto her back and bent down to Farhenheits level. She wrapped one arm around her waist, and used the other to pull Fara's arm over her neck.

"C'mon." Avery said, slowly helping Fara up to her feet. "Let's get cha out of here at least. Nate, Danse." She called down to them as they slowly walked to the front of the truck. "Help me get her down."

Nate did as asked without hesitation, while Danse slowly staggered behind. Avery slowly helped Fara slide down the front of the truck and close to Nate's side to where he helped her down the rest of the way.

"What are you even doing out here Fahrenheit?" Nate asked, wrapping one arm around her waist and using the other to hold her arm around the back of his neck.

"Well, it started out with just super mutants giving people trouble when they tried to reach the Goodneighbor settlement." She answered, leaning on Nate a bit for support. "But then a pack of ghouls came out from god-knows-where and scattered everyone sent out from Goodneighbor. Basically I don't know if anyone made it back or died trying."

"Well, how far are we from Goodneighbor?" Avery asked as she finished climbing down from the truck.

Danse stopped her within seconds before Fahrenheit could answer.

"No way in hell are we heading to that dump sight Avery." Danse snapped, stomping towards her. "She is on her own from here on out. And we are going back to the Prydwen."

"OR! And it's just an idea." Avery responded, walking over to Nate and Fara as she gives a little extra support. "Nate and I can take her back, and YOU can go back to the Prydwen!"

Danse's anger was growing heavily. He looked like he could explode any minute, but tried to keep his temper.

"Avery… I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt." He started with, but was quickly cut off.

"No, I'm gonna give YOU an ultimatum tin-can!" She snapped back. "It is about to be dark out and it's at least a 4 hours walk back to the Prydwen. She is injured, we are out of signal grenades for them to even find us. Now if you wanna go wondering off in the dark, be my fucking guest. Otherwise you're welcome to join us at Goodneighbor."

Before Danse could answer, Avery and Nate were already helping Fara back to Goodneighbor. Danse stood there, furry now beginning to boil over… at least until he gave in and began to follow… he hated it when she would actually turn out to be right.


	8. 8 Salutations into Goodneighbor

"Should be just around the corner." Nate said. He and Avery still supported Fahrenheit as Danse kept watch of their surroundings. Nate continued with, "It's a good thing too. Looks like it's about to rain."

"Yeah, we wouldn't want the tin-man to rust." Avery joked. "Last I checked, we didn't pack an oil can… sure don't have a heart for him either."

"What are you talking about?" Danse asked, not sure if to take that as an insult or not.

"Ah. Probably never heard if the _Wizard of Oz_ have ya?" Avery asked him.

"Guess I haven't." Danse answered.

Nate walked along, trying not to chuckle to Avery's reference. She wasn't far off from the truth of it; Danse constantly wore that power suit as if it was his body. It didn't help his case with the fact of how he had been treating Avery all this time. But, he didn't bother to wipe the smile away from his face.

"There it is." Fahrenheit pointed out, halting everyone in their tracks for a moment.

About 10 or so yards away, hung a florescent light spelling out " _Goodneighbor_ ". Yet, even in the dark of the night, the light was neither too bright or too dim. It was enough to be noticed yet overlooked. Guess it just depended if you were wanting to look for it or not.

"Let's get in." Avery suggested, slowly scooting Nate and Fara to start moving. "It looks like the rains about to come down."

In agreement, they all headed for the door. The guards didn't hesitate in the moment when they noticed who was approaching the entrance to Goodneighbor.

You heard one yelling, "somebody go get Amari."

Another yelled, "Go and retrieve Hancock."

The third had called out to Nate and Fara. "Who are the others."

"Don't worry!" Fahrenheit yelled to the guard. "They're allies with Nate. Just let us get in before we're dragged into anymore hell out here!"

The guard rushed down to ground level and began to unlock the entrance for them. Once they had entered, the door was locked back up in a heartbeat.

"Did anyone else make it back here?" Fahrenheit asked the guard. Avery and Nate helped her to a bench close by.

"MacCready made it back first. Then Jones." The guard started the answer. "Nichols and Jakovac haven't returned yet."

"Well, best hopes to them that they do." Fahrenheit responded. She pulled up her pant leg to examine her ankle again; it was still as swollen as it was earlier.

"Looks like you might've sprained it a little." Avery said, trying to examine it herself. But, Fahrenheit smacked her hands away.

"Don't touch, damn it!" She snapped. "Fucking thing hurts as it is."

"We no shit Sherlock!" She responded. "And it's gonna hurt. So regardless of who looks at it and helps ya, quit being a baby about it."

Nate chuckled a bit, and Fara just sat there annoyed.

The guards from earlier returned with people; a few more than expected.

"Damn Fanny." The first one said, pulling a cigarette out and lighting it up. "Why D'ya have to go and get yourself banged up like that?"

Fahrenheit smiled softly; the man handed her the cigarette and she took a couple puffs.

"Hey, don't make me put you in a worse spot Hancock." She smarted back to him, taking a few more puffs of the cigarette.

"Enough now. Let me take a quick look at it." The 2nd one chimed in. She bent down to the ground and took Fahrenheits foot into her hands.

Fara gasped in pain on a few occasions. She couldn't lip at Dr. Amari the way her and Avery do to one another, so she did her best to bite em instead.

"So, what's the damage doc?" Fahrenheit asked, and then followed with sarcasm. " _Will I ever get to walk again along the shore lines?! Or is this the end for me?!_ "

"Oh hush now." Amari responded, getting off her knees and back to her feet. "You've severely sprained your ankle. But. Obviously it will heal."

"Meh, just give me enough stimpaks and I'll be good as new." Fahrenheit responded, finishing the last of her cigarette.

"Oh no, not this time." Amari clapped back. "This is the 4th time in a yr that you've injured your foot this way. You need to let it heal naturally this time otherwise it won't heal properly next time with a stimpak."

"Aw, c'mon doc!" Fahrenheit pleaded with her. "I have other shit to get done out there. I can't be on restriction for so long!"

"I'm sorry, but Hancock is just gonna have to find someone else to do your chores." Amari responded. She wasn't going to back away from her words.

"Don't worry Fanny!" Hancock responded, being oddly cheerful in the moment. "I'll get someone like o' MacCready here to go out with a few others to get shit done. Don't trip over it!"

"Um, considering I almost got my ass killed earlier today. Think it'll be best to get someone else to do the dirty work." The one Hancock addressed as MacCready responded.

"C'mon Macky-man!" Hancock boasted as he wrapped an arm behind MacCready's neck. "What if I got Nate and his girlfriend here to go along with ya?! They always say 'Three's Company' don't they."

"Sorry, but our plans are to return to the Prydwen in the morning." Danse butted in.

Avery grew an annoyance with Danse again. She butted in on the conversation as well.

"How about Nate returns with you and I help get the job done for Hancock." She said, standing up to stare at him.

"Avery, we have orders by Maxson and those orders are to be followed as such." Danse tried to defend his reasoning.

"An order for a request, by Me." Avery pointed out. "You technically never had to tag along. You only did just so you could get brownie points with Maxson cuz of your attitude towards me. So with that, you can go and Nate can go with you. It wouldn't hurt for me to have a couple days with a new view and my feet not touching a cold ass metal floor when I woke up."

Danse was getting furious again. He hated when Avery seemed like she was butting heads with him just to stir the pot.

"Avery, we are going back in the morning. And That Is Final. Do you understand me?" Danse said, keeping his patients barely under while waiting for an answer.

"You don't seem to understand Danse." Avery snapped back. She was finally over Danse's attitude towards her and she wasn't gonna have it anymore. "Ever since I got on Maxson's good side you've been nothing but hostile towards me. You've done nothing but give me shit for following orders my when when Maxson approved of it. If it makes you feel better, I am in no way after your position in Brotherhood. I am only here for a basic reason. You don't like it then simply piss off and I'll tell Maxson to quit forcing it down your throat."

Before Danse could respond, Avery had already turned her back to him and helped Fahrenheit back on her feet.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go help her over to Amari's. Don't bother waiting up for me."

Without any answers, the two were heading off. They had left Danse and Nate alone with Hancock and MacCready.

"Damn, I'm loving her little attitude going on there." Hancock chuckled, finishing off a cigarette. "Nate, if you aren't claiming her, I might just consider trying to for myself."

"I may disagree with her, but it will be a cold day in hell til I see her screwing around with a rotting corpse like you, bud" Danse added in, glaring down at Hancock.

Hancock didn't seem to give much of a shit as he lit up another cigarette. But, he wasn't slow to have a outstanding comeback.

"Chill out tin-can, I said I was interested in the Dame." He stated. "Even if my tasted rolled with men, you'd be so out of my league that you probably wouldn't even make it as an mascot."

Nate couldn't help it this time. He was laughing from Hancock's response. He had been holding in the down talks everyone had been giving Danse. But this time, it was just enough to set Nate off in a laughing fit.


	9. 9 Pickman pick-off

"So, how did a pretty little thing like you wind up with a vault-dweller and a walking tin-can?" Hancock asked as he took a huff of jet.

"I wish you all would stop calling me that." Danse said, sulking in a corner instead of sitting with the others near the center.

"Well, they found me almost dead in the Commonwealth." Avery answered as she was cleaning the outside of her gun. "I kind of owe them in a sense… but even when I do right I can please the tin-can."

"I said stop calling me that!" Danse yelled out to them.

"Oh just take a damn joke Danse!" Avery yelled back to him. "God you're worse than a toddler in a terrible-two stage of life."

"I have no fucking clue what that means." Danse said in annoyance. The 2nd biggest thing that botheted Danse was when Avery said things he couldn't relate to.

"It means you're acting like a crabby little shit." She responded as she turned around to glance at him. "Do you need a warm bottle of booze or a damn nap to calm yourself down?"

"No, what I need is to be back on the Prydwen." He said. "Instead I'm stuck in a land of misfits."

"Well, sucks it's not the island of misfit toys." She smarted. "You'd make a great addition as the Robot that whined like a human."

"Can you say shit that makes fucking sense?!" Danse yelled. He was at maximum pissrd level at this point.

"Fuck it, I'm going to the Rexford to get some sleep."

Danse stormed off, and the others sat around chuckling as he did.

"Ever since meeting Danse, I have never seen him get so pissed off with anyone the way he does with Avery." Nate said, leaning back as he lit up a cigarette.

"I've had my fair share of soldiers like him." Avery responded as she leaned her gun on the side of the couch. "They always got a 50-yard stick up their ass and wanna do EVERYTHING by the books. They never have any fun and so they can't get when someones just teasing them and shit… kind of feel sorry for the bastard."

"Forget about him!" Hancock said with a cheeryness. He was huffing down another spritz of jet in the process. "Let me more about this little number here ya found Nate. Bet even MacCready here would like to know about Little-Miss-Gunslinger here."

"I was actually about to head to my place for some sleep as well." MacCready said. He had been standing ovee by the window and looking down into the streets. "Incase you forgot, I was on the run most of the day from mutants and ghouls just trying to get to Pickman's gallery."

Avery had quickly glanced up and MacCready when he spoke of the name Pickman.

"Why in the hell would you send your people over to that death trap?!" Avery snapped, whipping her attention to Hancock. "Fucking hell; death in the hands of a mutant or rotter would be a better death than at the hands of Pickman!"

"Wait, you've heard of it?" Hancock questioned with surprise. "How the hell do you know of that place"

Avery was silent for a moment. She didn't feel like revealing to Nate that she wasn't alone before they were found.

"Nate, promise you won't speak a word of this to Danse or Maxson unless I say so." She told him as an order.

"Why? What's wrong with this story you're about to tell us?" Nate asked, leaning his forearms on his knees as he stared at her.

"Cuz… cuz I wasn't alone when I got here… I had a companion with me at the time.. " she answered. "We were helping each other. She was gonna get me to the Prydwen and I was gonna get her out of Brotherhood and take her back with me to Oasis of Mul."

"Hold up." MacCready butted in. "YOU'RE from that mythical fantasy land everyone from the Wasteland talks about?"

"Yeah…" Avery responded with a sense of guilt. "There's more too that to prove it, but I can't say much right now. Even just telling you where I'm from already puts a threat on my safety and you guys." Avery then leaned back into the couch and continued. "Obviously, she didn't make it. But it's all thanks to that fucker, Pickman."

"What do you mean it puts 'us' a threat to our safety?!" MacCready questioned.

"Look, I've said too much. Can we just stick to the topic of Pickman?!" She snapped, not wanting to say anymore and then pointed a finger at Nate. "And like I said, you Do Not tell ANYONE of this discussion. Got it?"

Nate shook his head. He didn't have to say anything to prove to Avery to know he was being truthful.

"Anyway. Pickman is a murderous physcopath." Avery started with. "I mean yeah he's rid the Commonwealth of the most dangerous gunners and raiders. But, he also captures the innocent ones as well. I'm not sure how he acconplishes it on his own, but he does…" Avery leaned forward. Her arms were now resting on her legs and her hands were clapsed together. It took her a moment to gather the strength and the words together. "She was right there behind me… I-I-I don't know how I lost track of her so easily. I don't get how I didn't hear her scream for my help… but he got her. And I know the fucker got her cuz we were so close to the building and there wasn't a trace of anything off her."

"Damn," Hancock spoke up as he lit another cigarette. "Looks like I'll need to post a warning about that place. Stay clear from that fucker."

"No… that won't be enough…" Avery added. She then stood up and looked from Nate to Hancock to MacCready. "He needs to be killed. He's nothing but a threat to everyone's safety, regardless of their doing."

"And how the hell do you expect us to do this?" MacCready asked, standing to face her. "You just said you don't know how he does it. So how the hell do you expect to take this bastard down?"

"Uh, hello?! We can." Avery said. "Nates pretty damn smart. And, from how Hancock made it sound, you seem to know your way around a gun like me. Three against one is no issue, especially with the real gun power behind it."

"You JUST said how sneaky this guy is! You're jumping the gun on this lady and I'm not looking to get myself killed" MacCready pointed out to here again.

"What if Hancock was able to get a couple more guns on our side then?" She asked. "If he can get us at least two other people then that's ten eyes keeping watch on our surroundings. That should also be enough man power on us."

"I can probably scape up a couple other misfits for you guys." Hancock said, starting up another cigarette after finishing the last one.

"You know it amazes me that even though you ghouls live longer that you don't die quicker as a human would from smoking and drinking and shit." Avery commented, taking her seat back down on the couch.

"Bonus is we're pretty immune to the radiation." Hancock said with a light chuckle. "Fuck, the radiation is what turns us into this!"

"Yeah, still trying to figure out that genetic that makes that happen." Avery commented to herself, bit Nate was able to catch wind of her words.

"Wait, you put effort into studying the cause of ghoul mutation?" He question. "What else do you fucking do?!"

"Just think of studying and being a leader more of a hobby rather than a job." She said with a smirk. "I actually like to learn; science and weapons just happened to be my forte."

"Can we get back to the topic again?" MacCready jumped in and pushing them back to Pickman. "There's still no way you're getting me tied back in so forget it."

Avery looked up at MacCready for a moment, studying him. Something about him was oddly familar, but he couldn't put her finger to it. She then stood up and walked over to him and looked at him face to face.

"You're Robert Joseph MacCready, aren't you?" She asked. She watched his facial expression change in the moment. "Use to run with the gunners and now you're a gun for hire. You have a son named Duncan and a wife named Lucy. You're now working on your own and are trying to buy yourself out of the gunners." She then reaches into the bag she had strapped to her side and pulled out a smaller loch and tossed it to him. She then turned and started heading for the door.

"If you change your mind, be up by 9am to head out." She said to him without looking back.

"W-w-w-wait a minute!" MacCready stuttered, trying to catch up to her. But instead he stopped at the top of the stairs while yelling down to her. "How the he'll do you know all that?!"

Avery turned to look up at him. She had her body in the door frame, ready to walk out.

All she answered with was "I told you, learning shit is a hobby of mine." She then turned herself around and proceeded out the building; closing the door behind her.


	10. 10 a knock off a high metal horse

Avery had headed off to The Rexford; Goodneighbor's little janked hotel for people who came and went.

She headed up the stairs and went to Danse's room before heading to hers.

She knocked on his door. But considering that he watch read 11:50 P.M. she didn't expect an answer.

But, to her surprise, she heard the feeling sound of bedsprings reduce the silence. This followed with footsteps that lead to the door and then the door slowly opening.

"What the hell do you want?" Danse asked in annoyance as he rubbed his eyes.

"Well, I figured you were asleep at first with what time it is… Still, figured if you were awake we could talk for a minute?" She answered, trying to keep her voice low in consideration of others who may be sleeping.

"Well… I'd be lying if I said I was asleep." He answered, leaning up against the door frame. "Been struggling for the past your and thought I almost did pass out, til ya knocked."

"Sorry." She responded. She began to turn away as she continued to speak. "I'll let you get back to that. It can wait til morning."

"I'm already away. You might as well tell me now." He responded. His tone had a sense of annoyance, but mostly tiredness.

"You sure?" She asked, stopping in her tracks and turning to look at him.

He stepped out of the way and jesters his arm in a 'come in' motion. Avery smirked a little and walked back in his direction and entered the room. Danse closed the door behind him and then walked back to the bed. He took a seat there and she sat down on the couch.

"So, what is so important that you need to talk to me about?" He asked, pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lighting one up.

"Be honest with me." She started with, resting her arms on her knees, hands clasped together and leaning forward as she looked at him. "What are all the reasons you dislike me so much? Like, I can understand keeping your guard up, but you've been at this for quite awhile."

Danse took a puff of his cigarette and looked over at Avery.

"You're hiding more than you're letting everyone know. You're even hiding shit from Maxson and I find that a dangerous threat to our group." He answered, followed by taking another puff. "Everyone may be buying this act of yours. But I'm not. I'm not that fucking stupid."

Avery looked at him puzzled. For the most part, she had been upfront about everything. The only thing she had been hiding were things of her past. Yeah, some of it was a danger if she had let the others in on it. But, for the most part, the rest was stuff about her that nobody would get.

Avery wasn't from this place… she wasn't from this Universe. The only ones who knew of some of that history were the Elders of BoS. And even then, they were sworn to secrecy on that information. They were not allowed to ask of things of her world or the differences between their universe and her. They simply let things be and allowed her to continue her work in turning things around. And that was until certain things had happened that sent her to protect Brotherhood and others for a while.

She sarcastically chuckled a bit and lowered her head in between her arms.

"You know, you're not the first to assume it's an act" She said. She then slowly lifted her head up to look at Danse again; their eyes locked with each other. "You won't be the last either." Her crooked smiled turned to a blank expression. She then bit her lip and looked away from him for a moment.

Danse stood up, throwing his cigarette butt on the floor and using his foot to put it out. He then looked down at her and spoke again.

"But I wasn't wrong that you're hiding shit, huh?" Danse asked. A smile now spread across his face with the thought of finally finding a weak spot in her. "And you can't find the fucking balls to tell us shit, can you?"

"Last I checked, I had balls." She said while pointing to her chest. "They're just in a different spot and they're obviously bigger than yours since I have guts to be a sarcastic ass hole to ya at times."

Danse shook his head displeased. "See, that's the other issue. You don't fucking take shit seriously. You treat everything like it's a fucking joke."

"You have that big of an issue of someone trying to make a bad situation seem better somehow?" She asked him.

"You're damn right I do." He answered while giving her a stern look. "I see that as someone who really doesn't gives a shit and to me that seems like a fired ads way to get you or someone else killed."

"You really think I don't care?" She asked him. "You really think that I don't care that I took 5 days on foot to get here. And instead of killing Maxson with the pocket knife I had hidden in my cast, that I treated it with responsibility as another leader to give him a chance to make it right with me and turn us into each others allies."

Danse chuckled with a smirk. "I checked your entire bag when I found you. All of your weapons were confiscated."

Avery rolled her eyes at him. She then proceeded to lift her leg with the boot containing the hidden apartment and opened it to reveal the knife hidden inside it. She took it in her hand and showed it to Danse.

"You wanna just basically be straight forward and say I'm basically a fucking idiot of a fighter?" She said with a smirk.

Danse stood there in disbelief. He didn't want to admit that it was a smart strategy in case if combat or a sticky situation. He tried to find another approach to tear her down.

"Wow… knowing those intentions, you're an even bigger idiot than I imagined." he replied.

Avery continued to bite on her lip for the moment. She shook her head, trying to keep herself together instead of breaking down, and then looked back at Danse as she put the knife back.

"Let me ask you this, and then I can tell you a bit of something." She started with. Her expression was now cold as she looked at him. "What is the lowest thing that you had to do for your brothers and sisters here? And I'm not talking about just the idea of having to kill a fellow soldier because it was the humane thing to do."

"Probably." He answered. "Just don't remember. But, you can't really stop to remember something when you're trying to keep your own ass alive.

Avery huffed a breath with a sarcastic laugh. She shook her head again and looked down at the floor. After talking a moment to herself, she looked back up at Danse.

"If you can't even have a memory of hitting that low, then you never have." She tells him. She then began to put herself back onto her feet and looked him square in the eyes. "That shit burns into your brain and you can't get rid of it. It's the kind of shot that really changes a person. It makes you choose the option of making you something so much better or something that can make you so dark. And with whichever way you choose you don't ever turn back."

Danse chuckled. He began to reach for the cigarettes as he said, "Yeah, like you've experienced that kind of shit before. You're more full of shit than I thought."

Those words had finally made Avery snapped. Without second-guessing it, her hand raised and smacked Danse across his face. This made him stand there in shock for a moment. He had also dropped his packet of cigarettes in the process.

Avery's lips quivered as she stared at Danse with such anger and disgust. She finally spoke up; keeping her voice low, but enough tone showed that she was in such anger.

"You are such a disgusting piece of shit, you know that?" She started with. "You don't know shit about me buddy, but I know a shit ton about you that will make you second guess to fuck with me." She slowly started walking towards him, and Danse was slowly stepping back from her. But she continued her rant. You grew up as an orphan in the wasteland, with no fucking clue who your parents are. You grew up and tried running some rundown shop and ended up joining the Brotherhood along with a buddy of yours that you ended up having to put down because the institute used him as a test subject that turned him into a mutant."

Avery had backed Danse up so far to the bed. She pushed him down hard onto it and continued to stare him down.

"I know cuz I had people who were in that same spot." She confessed to him, but there was more. "I lost people just like you. But I've also done a lot more stupid and terrible things for those I cared and lost. I've slept with people for others safety. I've put myself in situations where I was tortured and raped. I have suffered MORE that you will EVER imagine. Especially with you being a man. The reason why I am the way I am is because I put others before me because I put myself first so they don't have to suffer what I've sadly grown use to!"

Danse laid there in silence. He was propped up with his arms as he listened to her.

"Even since being here, yeah I've teased you about your attitude and appearance. But other than times you tried jumping my ass first, when have I EVER treated you with such distrust and disrespect like you've treated me?"

Again, Danse laid there silent. He didn't know what to say in the moment; he was still trying to process it.

Avery had finally given up. She turned herself around and began to head out the room. But she stopped for a moment and looked back at him once more.

"Me and MacCready are going to take Pickman out tomorrow. Nate might come. But regardless of what you do after this discussion, I'm requesting that Maxson puts you out of my way cuz I'm extremely tired of your fucking bullshit buddy." And before even letting him have a word, Avery was gone; slamming the door behind her.

Danse continued to lay there in shock. The words she had said were slowly falling into place, and the guilt he was about to have followed.

He slowly sat back up on the edge of the bed. He rested his arms on his knees and his head in his hand.

"No one would lie about shit like that…" Danse thought to himself. He felt like a complete idiot for his actions and words. He hated that she was right again, but it hurt him cuz of how right she was.

It was mainly because of all the secrets her and Maxson were keeping from the others, it made Danse feel like he needed to be so hostile. He felt guilty never once giving her the benefit of the doubt and letting the anger go of feeling left out of Maxson's and Avery's secret. Even if they said it was for the safety of others, it wasn't enough for Danse. And now, he looked like nothing but an ass because of it.


	11. 11 A Sudden Drop Down

Avery waited near the only entrance and exit to Goodneighbor. MacCready showed up along with a few others Hancock chose to assist them. Nate came by not long after.

As Avery was about to give them a briefing, Danse had shown up by surprise.

He stood there in only his BoS suit, a gun strapped to his back and the other in his hand.

"Need an extra gun handy?" He asked a bit hesitant, but tried to keep his stride.

"Depends." Avery responded. She took a few steps towards him and stared into his eyes. "You promise to follow my orders and do this without causing us trouble?"

"Y-yes… I promise." Again, he answered a bit hesitantly. He wasn't sure if she would still allowed him to come along. He had been nothing but an ass to her this whole time. He at least wanted to do one thing right after how he treated her last night.

"Alright… then you can come along." She responded. She turned around and walked back to the front of the group. She then turned back to face them and started her orders out.

"We have to do this right the first time. Any screw-ups and all of us could wind up dead." She first looked to MacCready and Nate. "I want you two to take front lead. I will tell you when to turn but you two have the best eye. I'd take front myself, but my eyesight still acts up a bit since waking up." She then looked over to Danse. "You and I will take back lead; basically will do cover fire. That way with those two spots filled, the rest of you will take center. I'm not saying you aren't great shots or sighters, but with you in my control, I don't want to put you at risk first. Any objections."

"What exactly are we looking for in the idea if traps?" MacCready asked. "You said so last night that girl you were with just disappeared out of thin air. Surely you have just a simple idea of what kind of traps could do that."

"If anything, I would say ground traps. Sort of like a trap door kind of works. But I really can't say." Avery did try her best to give MacCready an answer, but she really didn't have much of a clue. The girl she was with then didn't even make a sound to tell her she went missing. "Any other questions?"

They all looked at one another and nodded in agreement that they were ready.

An hour had passed before they began to approach Pickman gallery. They hid behind a car and all peered over it towards the door.

"Alright. When we get in, we keep our eyes open." Avery said checking her clip to be sure it was loaded. "Any wrong prove and we could all be Pickman's next project. Danse, you and Nate will take the end and I will lead in with MacCready this time. Everyone stay in between unless told otherwise. Let's go."

Everyone had their guns up and ready as they slowly approached the Entrance to Pickman's Gallery. Avery slowly turned the doorknob and pushed the door open with the barrel of the gun. The door slowly creaked open into a early lit room.

Everyone gagged at the sudden stench that hit after the door opened. MacCready and Nate began heaving; almost throwing up.

"Fucking christ." Danse said, trying not to heave on the smell as well. "What the fuck is that smell."

Avery looked back at Danse with a bit of worried confusion.

"I'm surprised you can't tell what that is Danse…" she said softly.

The only sound now was a bit of coughing here and there. MacCready looked at Avery with shock on his face.

"It's… it's rotting corpses… isn't it?" He asked hesitantly.

Avery nodded, looking at everyone as she did. She then raised her gun back up and order for the others to follow.

They all took slow and steady steps into the building. There wasn't a single living soul in sight. They all stopped in the middle of the hallway of the main floor and huddled in a circle.

"Ok, I'm taking you two and MacCready upstairs with me to scope it out." She started with in a low whisper. "Danse, you, Nate and the other two will comb around down here. From other people I've talked to, he has a tunnel leading to where he hides his captured "supplies". When you find it give a whistle."

Everyone nodded in agreement and went along their ways. Avery and her group slowly climbed the set of steps to the 2nd floor. Danse and his started off into the living room.

Danse's group branched out a bit. They began examining the paintings on the wall. Nate even reached out to touch one, but was surprised that it was still wet.

"He must be here." He whispered to the others as she showed them his fingers. "Paints still fresh."

Danse walked over to him and examined the painting. Something about the "paint" was really off to him. Then he remembered what Avery said earlier about any who was captured being his "supplies" and almost hurled at the thought.

"What?" One of the others asked, coming over for a better look.

"That's not paint…" He said in a deep voice, trying to recollect himself in the moment. "That's blood."

The others were now in shock as well. Nate wiped the blood from his fingers onto the wall and tried to wipe what ever was left on his suit.

"You mean… he's capturing people… and using their blood as paint?!" Another asked in fear.

Danse nodded as he gazed upon on three of them.

"Avery's right; we need to destroy this Pickman guy." He said, pointing his gun back up and gesturing the men to move. "Come on. We need to find a way to this lair. Hopefully we can save a couple of lives today."

Avery's group had split at the top of the stairs. MacCready and one guy took the right side of the hall, while Avery and the other took left; both staying in pairs of two.

They searched behind every door and every cranny, but not much luck. They all eventually met in the hallway, with a bit of defeat.

"Now what are we supposed to do?" MacCready said with a bit of annoyance. "Doesn't even sound like the others found a way down yet. Seems like we're in a dead end."

"There's gotta be something here." Avery said, examining the hallway for a moment. She rubbed her shoulder since it ached from the gun strap digging in. She decided to take it off and leaned up against the wall. But, in a sudden movement, Avery went from on her feet to on her back.

"Avery!" MacCready yelled to her. "Avery, speak to me!"

The others downstairs hear MacCready and the others yelling and rushed up the stairs to find them.

"What happened?!" Danse yelled.

"She just leaned up against the wall and it gave way out of nowhere." One of the guys answered. "She fell, but we don't know how far and she isn't calling back to us!"

Danse pushed through the group and peered down into the hole. He then turned his flashlight on his power armor to get a better sight.

Avery laid there unconscious, surrounded by pieces of wood and wall debris.

"Avery!" Danse yelled, hoping she would move. "Avery, if you can hear us, we're coming down to to."

"How the hell are we gonna get to her?" Nate pointed out. "We don't have any rope and it's about a 3-story like drop."

Danse analyzed the area for a moment and finally came up with a plan. "I'm going back to the first level. I think we're above the kitchen so if I do it right, so should be able to punch a few holes and dig out the wall to get to her easier." Danse scrambled to his feet and headed for the stairs. "Yell if you see anything going on and if you're able to see me punch through. That way I know I'm in the right spot!"

Danse rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen. He didn't hesitate for a moment to start punching holes into the wall, but the others up top couldn't notice a change.

"Wait… guys, what's that?!" One of the men pointed out. They all watched and stared for a moment. They noticed the change in lighting for a moment and started assuming Danse had finally made it though.

"Danse you're there!" Nate started to yell cheerfully. "Get through now! Get thr-" he suddenly cut off his own words. He noticed the light was coming from a different angle and was getting bigger

"Oh shit." Nate mumbled under his breath. "Danse! Wherever you are, just break through! Just break through." He started yelling.

MacCready headed for the stairs to get Danse. He rushed into the kitchen to see Danse was still digging through.

"Somethings coming for her! I think it's Pickman!" He yelled. He then took the back end of his gun and began smashing it into the wall.

"I'm trying, but the walls on this level are extremely thick!" Danse yelled back. "I think I'm almost to the other side, I just hope we're fast enough."

"Guys hurry!" Nate yelled to them. The light from the opposite side grew closer and closer to Avery, and then stopped.

"Get the fuck away from her damn it!" Nate yelled to the mysterious light.

"Fucking shoot him!" One of the guys yell.

"Don't do that! You could accidently hit her!" MacCready yelled back. "We're almost through!

"Well you need to get through now! Whatever it is just picked her up!" Nate yelled.

Danse and MacCready went at the wall with all their mights and finally began to get through. Danse pushed MacCready aside and began prying away at the wall; tearing it to shreds. When the whole was finally big enough, he called to the others to come down and jump through without thinking a second time.

The others eventually caught up and followed. At first they were all left stranded in the dark until Dande turned his helmet lights on. They noticed the hallway was very narrow and barely lit, even with Danse light.

"That's the only way it came from… so it's the only way to go." Danse said as he slowly began to walk.

Nate picked up Avery's gun from the ground since the mysterious living left it behind.

"You really expect us to save her?!" One of the tag-along said nervously.

"We have to try." MacCready said turning to look at them. "She's got us this far down a rabbit hole, and we can still take him. There's 7 of us and one of him."

MacCready turned around and began walking again; the others followed.

Danse took lead. He had his gun at Aim the whole time. All he could think about was Avery now. The words she had said to him the other night had suddenly rushed through his head, sending him into a panic. But, he couldn't let the other know. They all had to stay calm and to stay alert if they wanted everything to go out right… he just hoped he would make it to her in time.


	12. 12 A reunion under terrible terms

About 20 minutes had passed when Avery had finally awaken. She gasped lightly from the sever head ache she was experiencing.

She tried to move herself around, but could feel her arms and legs were tied up. Her sight was a little out of focus, but she could make out some details of the room.

She was obviously far underground; pipes of different sizes bent it different directions. That was not the trouble though… her troubles began with the first sight of blood splatters all about the room. Bodies and their organs were spread about on the ground.

She looked to her left, and saw a couple of bodies in the cage beside her. They seemed to be alive still, but it was difficult with their heads being covered in bags.

She then looked to her right and her expression of shock grew wider. The face… the characteristics… she knew instantly who that was.

"Octavia?!"

"Mother fuck!" Danse yelled. "I'm not sure which way to go."

"Well, we can just split up?" One of the taggers suggested.

"But then what if we come across more forks like this?" Nate pointed out. He then set his bag down and began digging through it. "We need to stay together. If we split, now only are we at risk of getting lost, but Pickman can pick is off one at a time easier."

Nate finally found what he was looking for; a small can of black spray paint.

"We'll go ahead and go left " Nate ordered as he sprayed an arrow pointing down the hall. "If we run into a dead end or even end back here, at least we'll have a better idea."

"Smart idea Nate." Danse praised him.

Nate smirked as he placed the can back in his bag.

"You're gonna hate me when I say this, but Avery taught me…" Nate said, standing back up and putting his backpack back on.

Danse smirked back and nodded his head. He took the lead once more and lead them down a few more tunnels.

"Octavia?" She quietly called out to the figure hiding in a shadow.

She noticed the figures head had turned in Avery's direction. Avery could even feel the figure's eyes studying every inch of her.

"Oh my god…" the figure called out. It slowly began scooching itself from the darkness and into the light.

Avery was greeted to the face of a woman. She had black hair to her shoulders, but it was mostly tucked away in a messy bun. The woman's eyes were also like an emerald green as she sat there in shock.

"Holy fuck, it's really you!" The figure called out. "God you're a sight for sore ass eyes!"

Avery was in such relief and shock. She couldn't believe that after 200 yrs that she'd be looking into the eyes of a great friend.

Avery couldn't help herself from crying lightly in the moment. She wanted to hug Octavia so badly, but was still tied up.

"How long have you been down here?!" Avery asked, scooching herself closer to the cage wall.

"Fuck… about 3 days now I think," Octavia answered, positioning herself in as much of a comfortable position as she could. "Any chance you know where I am?"

"We're in Pickman's gallery." Avery answered, leaning her back against the wall now. "And I'm hoping we get out of here soon."

"Good luck with that." Octavia said with a sarcastic tone. She then rest her head back against the wall and stared at the ceiling. "Anyone that I've seen try just ends up dead."

"Well, I came here with other people. Hopefully they can find me." Avery said, trying to be assuring.

"How did you even end up captured?" Octavia asked. "If anything, you'd be the last to be captured by anyone."

"I was leaning up against a wall. Surprising it just gave through and I fell." Avery answered. "Guess I was out cold because I don't remember anything else in between then."

"Then, how do you assume the people you came with are gonna come after you?"

Avery glanced around the room for a moment, checking to be sure the coast was clear before she shifted her body in a different position.

"Cuz we were hired to take Pickman out." She answered. She moved her legs into a kneeling stance so her shoes were behind her. Octavia watched in a bit of confusion at first, but then it clicked in her head as to what Avery was doing.

"To think I trashed about how ugly those damn boots are." She said with a smirk. She then became Avery's lookout to be sure Pickman never came out of no where.

It took Avery a little bit, but she had finally managed to open the compartment of her shoe that hid her pocket knife. She pulled it out and quickly closed it. She then proceeded to shuffle herself over to Octavia to pass off the knife.

"You need to get out before me." Avery whispered as she held out the knife behind her back. "I want you to go and try to find men by the name of Danse, MacCready and Nate. Tell them you know me and lead them back here to get the rest of us out."

"Avery, I can't leave you here with this fucker roaming about." Octavia said in an annoyance. "This guy is a vile piece of shit and from what I've seen, I'm not leaving you here!"

"Octavia, you have to!" Avery snapped back. "When you get out you hand me the knife and I'll place it back in my shoe. That way if you somehow get caught, he won't be able to find it on your or me. Now do it!"

Octavia sat there in silent contemplating the situation. She had just found Avery after so long and didn't want to part with her in a terrible setting. Yet, Avery wasn't wrong that it may be better if Octavia tried to break free first before Avery, so she finally took the knife and began working her way thru the ropes.

"Remember Danse, Nate and MacCready. There's a few others with them, but those are the three in particular you have to search for since they know me better than the others." Avery was not the look out for Octavia as she continued working on the ropes. As Avery continued to speak, as Octavia got through the hand rope and began working on her legs. "Hopefully they were smart enough to pick up my gun. If they did, asks Nate for it."

"Is the the Ameli or the Ohm?" Octavia asked as she worked on the last bit of rope.

"The Ameli. Nate's the only one who knows what it's called so surely he'll have trust to give it to you."

Octavia rushed herself in the moment, but she had finally broke through the rope. She quickly went to the bars and reach over to Avery's boots and placed the knife back.

Octavia finally worked to her feet and began pushed the gate open slowly.

"Scary thing is the fucker leaves these unlocked all the time." Octavia said, looking back at Avery. "Probably gives others a false hope of getting out."

"Octavia, I'm glad you miss me and all, but you need to get going Now!" Avery hissed, still keeping her eyes peeled. "Just cuz it's been almost 200 years, doesn't mean I've lost my trust for you."

Octavia hesitated for a bit, but she had finally worked up the courage to make her move. Within minutes, Octavia had disappeared; Avery and the other possible living ones were left alone… at least for a minute.

Avery's sight had turned the other direction to the sound of a door closing. She could hear the sound of dirt crunching under someone's shoes in the moment. She hold her breath expecting the nightmare to begin. And sure enough, there stood Pickman…

"Plus side, we aren't making as many returns." Nate said, trying to be positive. It had been about half an hour now as they were trying to find their way to Avery. Danse and MacCready were becoming concerned that even if they found her, it was going to be too late.

Nate had rounded a corner and signed in relief, noticing that there was now going to be dirt under their feet instead of sewage tunnel metals. The hall before them was lit with red lights… or, what they hope was just red light bulbs.

"Finally." MacCready said. "Maybe we'll have a better chance of finding her now."

Nate took lead, Danse took end and MacCready took center as the all proceeded down the hall. There were a couple of rad-roaches here and there, but the walk was smooth sailing for the most part. Nate suddenly had the group halt when he noticed the movement of a shadow in the far distance. Nate and MacCready raised their guns, ready to fire incase it was needed.

"Stop right there, or we'll shoot!" Nate yelled down. "Whoever you are, come down to us slowly with your hands up."

A voice called out from the other direction; addressing the main three by their name.

"Avery?!" Danse called. "Avery is that you?!"

"No, but she helped me escape in order to find you." The figure was now at the end of the hall, her arms were up as Nate had asked as she slowly approached the guys. "My name is Octavia. I'm an old friend of Avery's and she told me Nate possibly had ahold of her Ameli."

"Where's Avery?!" Danse yelled down to her. He and the others had lowered their guns at this point and Octavia trotted down to them.

"She's alive right now, but we gotta hurry back to her." Octavia said. "Like I said, Avery told me Nate or any of you should have the Ameli."

Nate reached around and pulled the heavy weapon off of his back.

"I assume you know how to use it?" Nate asked, handing it to her. "And hopefully plan on using it on Pickman rather than us?"

"Actually I was planning on putting a bullet in everyone's ass and then taking out Pickman with you guys." She smart mouth as she checked the gun and strapped it to her.

"Great." Danse said slightly annoyed. "We just needed a black haired version of Avery as well."

"I would love to play ketchup since you're obviously oblivious to who I and Avery really are. So how about we save that til we… Well, live and get the fuck out of here." Octavia said, pointing at the direction she came.

"Bit more lippy than Avery is." MacCready mumbled to himself.

"Just come on. I can get you to her." Without warning, Octavia began back down the way she came and the guys followed behind.

Dance still kept to himself at the end. He was now thinking on how Avery didn't seem as terrible as he though, thanks to the sudden impression he got from meeting Octavia. Still, all he could worry about now was to find Avery safe. The guilt fully sat in for how he had been treating her this whole time. And, he'd feel even more guilty if he didn't make it right by her in time.


	13. 13 The rescue

Avery was cuffed down to a table in the center of the room. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't yank herself free.

A man in a clean grey suit stood over. He wore his hair back in a ponytail and a crooked grin on his face.

He was holding a silver knife in one hand. The other end lightly pressed against the index finger of the other one as he gently turned the blade.

"Hmm, such a shame." He said softly as he looked down at Avery. "You're much prettier than the escapee. But, surely a trap or two triggers like always and I can still claim her. You'll just have to be the new play toy."

"Regardless if I live today or not, you sure fucking won't buddy." She spat at him with anger.

He chuckled a bit as he brushed a hand against her cheek.

"Who said anything about killing you?" He said. "You're too pretty to kill; I have something better in mind."

He then too the back of the blade and gently slid it down the front of Avery's chest.

"Definitely too pretty to kill." He said again. "I must make you my little play toy." He slowly leaned down and placed his lips upon Avery's neck. She had averted her eyes in disgust as she continued to struggle herself free.

Pickman moved his lips up and down Avery's neck; she could even feel him inhaling deeper in some occasions. He was taking in the sort of aroma she was giving off.

"Such a beauty of God's work. You're too pretty to use for my art when you're already a piece yourself." He said, running the back end of the blade down her shirt again. "Such a pity. I wish I could let you go. But, I know you will try to run away or hurt me. I can't allow that."

He then took the blade and stabbed in into the table, next to Avery's head. He brushed his hand along side her face and then turned away from her.

"I need my supplies." He said as he began to walk away. "I need to finish my creation before I can play with my new toy"

He disappeared for a few minutes. Avery could hear a few things being knocked over or dropped to the floor. He eventually returned, carrying a couple cans of "paint". He set them down at the end of the table that Avery was cuffed to and pulled a couple of brushes from his pockets.

He looked over at a blank canvas that hung on the wall, and then back to her. He stared at her for minutes before he began to do his work. He went away with it for a while, acting as if he was careful of every stroke of the brush he had in his hand. But then he stopped. He paused for a moment to gaze at his work.

"Something…" he mumbled under his breath. He then slowly turned back and looked at Avery. She could feel him searching her body from top to bottom. He then proceeded to place the paint brush down and walk towards the table. "Yes… something is missing."

He walked over to the side he left the knife in and pried it from the table. His hands then slowly directed to the hem of her shirt, his knife in the lead. He gently slipped the blade underneath her shirt and slowly began to life. Avery wanted to squirm, but feared that with the wrong move he would hurt her in worse ways. He lifted the shirt up to the bottom of her chest; not to expose her.

"Beautiful." Pickman said, brushing a hand across her stomach, the knife still clutched in the other hand. "There's no way I can kill a beautiful piece of work…" he said with a grin.

But Avery suddenly felt pain along the right side. She saw that Pickman had made a long but small incision cut on her side in the area that was exposed. She yelled for a moment from the pain, which followed heavy breathing.

Pickman stabbed the blade back into the spot on the table and picked up a brush that was near. He gently pressed the ends along the cut he had put on Avery; collecting the blood as paint. Avery had yelled in more pain when the bristle ends of the brush dug into the wound.

"Beautiful…" Pickman said, turning back to his painting and pressing the brush against the canvas.

Danse had suddenly freaked out when he heard Avery's yells echoing in the distance.

"Fuck, we gotta get back to her fast!" Octavia said as she went off in a sprint. The others then followed behind.

They dodged every turn and barged through every door before Octavia approached the last door.

"Stop-stop-stop-stop-stop!" She ordered, trying to hold the others back. "This is it, but we gotta be quiet getting in."

The men all held their guns up, ready to fire as Octavia opened the door. Avery's screams of pain were now louder without the door muffling it out.

"Beautiful…" they heard Pickman say, Avery still moaning in pain and discomfort.

They all entered with room with heavy caution. Octavia pointed nate, maccready and 2 of the 4 others to climb up the railing to the 2nd level of the room. She motioned danse and the others to slowly follow behind her. They worked their way around piles of empty cans, blank canvases and other junks. Octavia was about to completely walk around a corner when she caught a quick glimpse of Pickman and darted back behind the wall. She sat in the dirt against the wall trying to figure out the next move.

"What are you waiting on?!" Danse whispered. "He's there and we can finally gun him down."

"We can't just go guns a blazing!" She snapped back. "He's very slippery. One wrong shot and Avery could be the dead one here."

The room was then completely quiet, aside from the sound of Pickman's footsteps around the other side. They heard various sounds after that; one what sounded like Avery having a gag placed in her mouth to muffle out her voice. Another being the sound of chains and cuffs unbuckling.

The room fell quiet again, but only for a moment. Pickman had caught them completely off guard when he spoke directly to them.

"I didn't plan on killing her." He started with. "But if you make the wrong move, I'll have to make a change of plans. So I suggest you come out slowly with your guns put away and your hands up for me to see."

"Shit!" Avery gasped, hitting her fist on the floor.

"What the fuck now genius?!" Danse snapped back.

Octavia sat there quietly, biting her lip thinking it through. Avery had muffled out a sound a pain through the gag; Pickman had gently pressed the tip of his blade into Avery's side again.

Octavia sprang up without hesitation and did as told. She strapped the gun to her backside and slowly began to walk around the wall to face Pickman. Octavia noticed Pickman was holding Avery close; her arms still cuffed together, a gag in her mouth and the blade to her neck.

"Come on now." Pickman said ery, pushing the blade a little harder to her neck. "I know you found her little lost boys. They need to come out too or else." He move the blade to her back side again and punctured a small point again, Avery screaming once more.

Danse was livid. It was already bad to hear anyone screaming in distress, but because of the guilt, it was much worse. He gave in and followed Octavia and came out with his hands up. And soon, the others followed behind.

Pickman had a crooked grin on his face as he watched all the others walk from behind the wall.

"Funny… I expected a few more if you." He said, the blade now back to Avery's neck.

"It's just us." Danse growled back, the look of disgust hung on his face. "Let her go know damn it."

"Now, why would I do such a thing?" He asked. He had now moved the blade to the side of her face and gently ran it down her cheek without cutting into it. "She's a work of art on her own. Better use is to keep her alive and use a little bit of her when it's really needed."

"You sick son-of-a-bitch!" Danse yelled, ready to storm at him. But he stopped in his tracks when Pickman moved the blade back to Avery's neck.

"I told you! I don't wanna kill her! But I will if I need to!" He yelled at him. He made a light brush on Avery's neck in the moment. The made the others squeem a bit. Avery gasped in pain through the gag and flinched lightly.

MacCready and the others accomplished sneaking up the railings without being noticed. All they could do for the moment and listen and watch in horror, but hope that something works out right.

"Now, this is how we're going to do this." Pickman began giving orders. "You all, are going to step into the cage over there, and that's where you'll stay. Looks like enough supply for a month's work of art."

He then fixes his eyes down on Avery. He moved the blade away from her neck and began nuzzling his face into his neck. He even traced his tongue along the cut on Avery's neck; he seemed to even enjoy the taste of her blood. His attention then turned back to the group.

"As long as you stay here, she will be kept alive for as long as I can keep her." He took the hand that held the blade and gently ran his fingers down her side. "She will make a marvelous play to for when I need a little inspiration."

MacCready couldn't take much of this anymore. He ready his rifle and readied himself to aim for Pickman's head.

"MacCready no!" Nate whispered. "You could hit Avery!"

"I'm not going to hit her! And we can't let this fucker keep this shit up any longer." He snapped back, keeping his shot aligned.

The others were at a loss for words. All they could do was stand and watch in disgust as Pickman began to become more handsy with Avery. He brought the knife back up to her neck, but began to use the other hand to reach under her clothes. He started simple with running his hands under her pants on her outer thigh.

He moaned softly as he whispered into her ears. "So soft and smooth… like porcelain." He then turned his attention once more to the group and pointed the blade towards the cages. "In, now!"

They hesitated for a moment, but followed his ordered. Octavia took the lead, the others following and Danse taking the back.

"No no." Pickman stopped him. "Out of the power suit buddy. Be useless putting you in a cage with such an advantage.

Danse stopped dead in his track. He hesitated again once more, but did as Pickman ordered.

Danse had stepped out of the power armor, dressed in an orange and white one-piece suit.

"Good boy." Pickman said. "Now into the cage, as ordered."

Danse stood frozen for the moment, examining his surroundings. He had a plan to try and get them all out of this, but his bigger concern was making sure Avery made it out with them.

"Hey!" Pickman yelled, snapping Danse back into reality. Pickman held the blade tighter the Avery's neck, causing a bit of blood to draw. "I said get in damn it."

Danse had snapped. He didn't finish thinking the plan through, but he went for it.

He grabbed the end of the table close to him and flipped it towards Pickman. Pickman's reaction was to throw Avery aside and to move out of the way. In the process, even though the pressure of the blade lighten, the knife had lightly nipped Avery as she fell.

"MacCready, take the fucking shot!"


	14. 14 A side lesson in universal theory

MacCready did his best to remain his shot at Pickman. But, when he fired the round, the best he got was a shot in the shoulder. It didn't slow Pickman down, for he still ran off in the opposite directions.

MacCready and the others ran down the railing, Danse quickly ran over to Avery as the others ran out of the cage.

Danse removed the gag from her mouth and was examining the wounds on her neck.

"Are you alright?!" He asked in a panic, seeing the blood running from her cuts.

She gasped the moments he had lightly put pressure on them, but was able to nod to him.

"Fucking stings like shit, but I'm fine." She answered.

MacCready and Nate rushed past them and went the direction Pickman had ran.

"Where the hell are you going?!" Danse yelled to them.

"We need to get him while he's wounded!" Nate yelled, the sound of their feet getting quiet. All of the other guys followed behind; Octavia stayed to help.

"You alright to walk?" Octavia asked, removing the cuffs at her feet.

"Should be." Avery was breathing heavy, trying to just relax for a moment. She smirked a little at Octavia and tried to lighten the mood. "Almost 200 years… and I ALMOST lost my trust for ya."

Octavia smiled for the moment, and began to help Avery back on her feet.

"And it may be another 200 when you finally do." She answeredb trying to keep the vibe up. But this threw Danse a curve ball.

"What do you mean by "200 years"?" He asked, completely confused with their conversation.

Octavia looked at Danse as he spoke and then looked to Avery.

"Guessing he doesn't know?" Octavia asked, pulling Avery back to her feet.

"The only one who knows are the Elders of Brotherhood." Avery answered. She was catching her breath again in the moment. "No one else here really knows."

"Well with me here now, this should be exciting." Octavia smirked, wrapping Avery's arm around her neck to give her support.

"Octavia I can walk. Don't worry." Avery tried to assure her.

The others came back after sometime. They all had the same expression on their face and they rejoined the group: defeat.

"The fucker got away." MacCready says, pulling his hat off and rubbing his forehead. "We lost him at an intersection and had no clue which way he went."

"He'll eventually come back." Danse stated, but Avery follows up.

"Then lets get out of here before he does." Avery finishes" slowly pushing herself to walk.

"But that fucker is still at large" MacCready responds with anger. "After all this work, we're just gonna let him live?!"

"We will get him." Avery said. She then began choking on her words as she continued. "I let one minor thing happened. And it's safe to say we need to be better prepared… for now, we'll just have signs in the area to warn others off. When we get our shit together, we can try again."

"She's right." Octavia said. "And the longer we're here, the longer we're here, the longer we become easier targets."

They all nodded in agreement. They check the other bodies that were still in one piece, in hopes of more survivors, but there was nothing.

"Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait-wait." Danse said, trying to process everything. Avery and Octavia were being patched up by Cade as they sat in a conference room with Maxson, Danse and Nate along. "You're telling me this science-fiction mumbo jumbo is all real? And that these two technically don't belong in this universe?"

"Wow, you're a geneius." Octavia started as she rest back into a chair. "Figure it out on your own?"

Danse glared at Octavia, he suddenly had the feeling of annoyance like he did when he first met Avery.

"Again, so amazing to have another Avery around." He said sarcastically. His attention then turned back to Avery and Maxson. "But this is the big secret that you two have been keeping from all of us?"

Maxson and Avery looked at each other for a moment, and then back to Danse and nodded.

Danse began to rub his forehead a bit, still trying to process everything. Nate was leaning against a wall when he interrupted.

"Ok, but that doesn't explain the other thing you mentioned." Nate chimed in, pushing himself off the wall and walking closer to the others. "You said that you guys were over 200 years old… how exactly is that possible?"

Octavia glanced over to Avery and shrugged her shoulders.

"You wanna explain this one 'Test-subject'?" She addressed her as.

"What do you mean 'Test-Subject'?" Danse said, looking at Octavia and then to Avery.

Avery sighed, and proceeded to make herself comfortable by resting her arms on her knees and her hands together.

"Well… without giving the entire life story, this is what I can say." She started with. "My father was really ill with stage 4 lung cancer that spread to his brain and his groin and so forth. They gave him an estimate of 4 months left to live… but, at the same time, they had an expiremental cure that could probably help him."

"So what did you have that made you a better test subject before giving it to him?" Nate asked.

"Aside from depression, drug and alcohol addiction? I was in stage 2 of breast cancer." She answered. "But thanks to the depression I had before that and only Octavia knowing of my full case, we lied and told my dad that they injected the same form of lung cancer he had. I basically had to sign my whole life away and I looked at it as not only hoping that if it worked, I'd save my dad… But that if I died, it was my choice and that I tried doing right by him finally before he left."

The others stood in shock and awe at her story. They couldn't believe what they had just heard. But, Danse broke the silence.

"But, it did so much more didn't it?" He asked.

"Obviously." She answered. "Yes it cured me of my illness and mental disorders. And with that it was given to my father and a few other people in the same boat. Everything seemed normal at first… at least until I hit what should've been my 30's… and what would've been my dads early 90's. Since taking the medicine, we didn't age much. Neither did Octavia, my brothers, and others in our science facility that took this medicine."

"Science facility?" Maxson questioned. "You mean you guys developed it?"

"Well, the people that work under my dad's command, yes." She answered. "I was 19 years old at the time of taking the medication and was going through my 'fame and fortune' phase after hitting film roles and such. We all took various dosages so the amount of time for the aging process to slow down differed between one another. But when we caught on with what was happening, he had no choice but to report it to government officials."

Avery gasped in the moment. Cade was still trying to patch her up during the meeting.

"Sorry. You may not need stitches but you still need these to hold the wound together a bit" he mumbled to her, plastering down a couple more pieces of stitching tape on her side wound.

Avery bit her lip for a moment, then proceeded with the conversation. "To shorten it, I don't exactly know the complete science behind the medicine. But, government took advantage of it. They allowed us, and ONLY US, to take this medicine. My dad and brothers were very highly valuable people for the U.S. government so they saw it as a way of preserving history and a good way to advance the way we did things. Fairly enough, there were some that still wished to eventually age and have actual lives once the medicine wore off. Simply they just had it written in their contracts that they can decided if the wish to take the next dosage or go on with life."

Danse was still rubbing his forehead, trying to wrap his brain around it. Maxson and Nate sat there in disbelief some.

"Well, now I have another question?" Maxson asked. He pulled open one side of his coat and reached into his pocket. Maxson was gracious enough to care for her creature, Mochi, while they went off on their missions. He held the creature in his hand, but Mochi crawled up his arm and tried climbing under his beard. Avery always found it amusing; Mochi simply enjoyed hiding under furry like things when he could. Whenever Arthur had ahold of him, it was always his beard or in one of his jacket pockets. "What exactly is this thing?"

Avery smirked and shook her head a bit.

"Again, may be a bit hard to believe. But, in a way he's not from any universe other than the fictional kind." She answered.

"You mean like from a book?" Nate followed with.

"Book. Movie. Tv. You name it." She answered with. "When I eventually got interested with science, my speciality became seeing the possibility of fiction becoming reality. Mochi is a fictional alien creature from a comic book… the planet it comes from also plays a part in the name of my colony."

"You mean 'Oasis of Mul'?" Maxson asked.

"Yes. The plant held these beautiful creatures, that when they harvest the planet's pearls..." Avery paused for a moment. The whole time being around the others, she wore a bracelet around her lefr wrist. It held several various colored stone, and with her nail, she plucked one out of it's spot.

She then shooed Cade away for a moment. She stood up from her chair and walked over to the table, the others followed closely. She set Mochi on the table and fed the stone to the creature. The others stood and watched; Octavia stayed in her seat, since she already knew of the creature's abilities.

They all jumped for a moment when they saw the creature twitch slightly and look as if it was choking for a moment. Eventually, it began draining with stones exactly like the one she fed it. The others stood and watched in amazement.

"It… it multiplies anything it eats." Nate asked. He had bent down to the tables level to watch from another angle.

"Well, not everything." She replies. "Mainly solid crystals like rhinestones and quartz and such."

She stepped back to the table and retrieved Mochi when he was complete. She placed the small creature back on her shoulder and returned to her seat.

"I can understand your concern of the idea of me 'playing god' in all of this. But, believe me when I say, when I made creatures like Mochi, I make sure to choose the harmless ones possible."

"Creatures? You mean you've made more living things than just that one?" Maxson snarled with a bit of disgust.

"Almost 200 of them." Octavia answered. "Again though, completely harmless… well unless they need training."

Avery turned to Octavia and glared at her for a moment.

"You're not helping my case here." She mumbled to her. But Octavia just shrugged it off.

"Well, he can't really do much about it," Octavia pointed out. "So there's not much to worry."

A knock on the door suddenly interrupted the meeting; Cade went to answer.

Captain Kells greeted Cade at the door and entered the room.

"My apologies Elder Maxson. But, your assistance is needed on the main deck." Kells said, keeping his about stance.

Maxson signed, then nodded his head to Kells.

"We'll continue this discussion another time then." He said to the others, and then began to follow Kells out. He then turned back to face the others, for a last word. "Please try to keep this quiet as much as possible. If the rest if the crew is going to find out, I want it to be on a clear level-minded meeting or something like that."

They all looked at one another, and agreed to Maxson's orders. Maxson then nodded in return and exited the room. The others eventually followed one after the other.


	15. 15 Easy Apology

A few days had passed since the events at Pickman Gallery. By now, everyone knew of Avery and Octavia true identities, and people adapted better than they and Maxson had expected.

Danse and Avery never had a moment with one another since then; she had given strict orders to Maxson that she no longer wished to work alongside Danse whenever the Brotherhood requested for help.

This had drove Danse crazy. He was still feeling terrible for how had treated Avery before the Pickman incident, and he wanted to apologize for it. Even when he would try to approach Avery, she was able to find a way to avoid him.

Danse had returned from one of his missions. Nate had caught a glimpse of him stepping out of his power armor and noticed how something was bothering him. Hr figured that he had suffered enough and went to talk with him.

"You're still beating yourself up, huh?" Nate said, handing Danse the drink in his hand as an offer.

Danse smirked and politely declined a sip with a wave of his hand. He pulled a piece off of his power armor suit and walked over to one of the work benches.

"Damaged the hinge in the fucking left arm." Danse muttered, trying to avoid Nate's question.

"Come on Danse." Nate said, leaning on the side of the bench. "If you tell me I can probably help you get to her before she runs off."

"Yeah, just cuz you two are such buddies, doesn't mean she'll stop to talk if you asked her." He responded as he began to take the piece apart.

"Doesn't hurt to try." Nate takes a swig of his beer and then pulls a stool up close by. "I'm not even sure why she's mad at you. But, I'm assuming from how shitty you look when you see her, it was pretty bad."

Danse stood up straight and sighed. He placed one hand on his hip and the other on the back of his neck, gently rubbing it.

"I basically called her weak in a shitty way… and she called me out about it with a bit of her back ground." Danse told him. "I feel like a dick to an extent and simply want to apologize. I don't care for her forgiveness at this point. I just wanna get the guilt off me is all."

Nate took a couple more sips of his drink, thinking on it for a moment.

"She's been working on that bike thing the past few days." Nate admitted. "Maybe catch her when she's in Ingram's workshop."

"You need an access code to get in there…" Danse pointed out. "How the hell was she able to get one?"

"She upgraded the prosthetic Cade made for her to where it uses sensors attached to her leg so it can actually bend at the knee." Nate answered, finishing the last of his drink.

"Damn… she really is that smart huh?" Danse mumbled under her breath.

"You're not the first to give her shitty credit on her intelligence."

The voice came from Danse's left. When they both looked, they saw Octavia standing there with a beer in her hand.

"Eavesdropping?" Nate said, chuckling a bit.

"Yup. Was wondering how much longer the tin-can would take before he started to debate on how he was gonna get to her." She walked closer to them and took a swig of the beer.

"Nate has a good point on the garage thing though." Octavia 2nd the idea, leaning against the wall as she talked to them. "She's in there for about 2 hours a day trying to get that damn bike to work."

"But again, you need a-" Danse started with, but was cut off by Octavia.

"An access code." Octavia finished, holding up a piece of paper in between her fingers.

"You have a code too?" Danse questioned.

"I help her work on the damn thing from time-to-time." She answered. "Plus Ingram said she liked my personality and doesn't mind me coming around to chat with here on a couple occasions.

"Whatever then… what do I need to do to get that access code?" Danse asked. He almost looked as if he was about to do anything for it.

"Well, you're already doing it." She said, handing the paper to him. "You're feeling like a complete dick about it all. And she told me to only give it to you once I saw you starting to try and figure out how to get to her."

Nate chuckled a little from behind. Danse quickly snaps the paper away from Octavia's fingers and begins studying it for a moment.

"There's gotta be a catch here." Danse said, confused as to how easy it was to obtain the passcode.

"Well, on her end there isn't." Octavia said, taking another drink of her beer. "Me on the other hand. Let's just say if you screw shit up again, you won't have to worry about making it right by her. That simple?"

"What do you mean by that?" Danse said a bit puzzled.

Octavia snickers at his question and then finishes off her beer.

"I've seen the way you look at her. I'm hoping intuitions right and it's just a romantic guilt, and you at least look smart enough not to act on it." She threw the empty bottle in a nearby waste bin and turned to fully face Danse. "If I'm wrong I wish you luck on that, cuz she's not easy to snag. Probably even worse since she's been stuck here for so long."

Nate was trying to hold back the chuckles. Octavia wasn't wrong that Danse looked at her with that sort of "romantic guilt" she mentioned. He remembered looking at Nora that way on a couple of occasions when he did the littlest things to make her upset.

"You don't need to worry on that." Danse said, quickly shutting down the idea. "Even if that's the case, people like us are probably those opposites that never even come close to an attraction."

"Fine then, if you say so." Octavia said. She started to walk away, but then turned back around once more to face Danse. "I'm not kidding though. Hurt her again, and you might regret it buddy."

"What the hell do you mean by that?!" He yelled to her, but she didn't turn back to face him. She continued to walk on.

Danse looked back at the paper she had given him. Nate got onto his feet and came around to see.

"Well. Guess she's probably down there right now." Nste said as he pat Danse on the shoulder. "Probably a good moment now to get it over with."

Danse sighed. He folded the paper back up and slipped it into one of the pockets on his suit. He walked off without saying anything to Nate; swallowing his pride to make amends with Avery.

Danse stood outside of the garage for a moment, hesitating. He wanted to clear the air and get it over with. But, at the same time, he didn't want to seem like any bigger of an arrogant jerk than he already had as it was. But after enough time, he finally figured how he was going to approach the matter.

He began entering the passcode into the terminal, and eventually the door had unlocked.

When he pried the door open from the ground, he was greeted with unfamiliar music, and the words of "...when september ends." This unusual sound that was suppose to be music didn't bother him much. He actually enjoyed it a little.

"Octavia, if that's you, can you please bring me the bottle of water by my stereo please?" Avery yelled. Her back was to Danse, so she wasn't aware that it was him. Her attention was focused more on her bike that she'd been working on for a while.

Danse said nothing, but closed the door and did as Avery asked.

When he handed her the bottle, he held it to where she couldn't see his hand. But when she reached for it, their hands had touched for a moment. She sat there quiet and still for a moment, and then gently took the bottle from Danse's hand.

"She finally thought you deserved to have the passcode huh?" She asked, opening the bottle and taking a swig from it.

"I guess that's what it is… with whatever your way of thinking is to do it this way.v he said.

"Well, you have my ears to listen at least " she responded. She sst the bottle down beside her and dug her hands back into the bike. "I would be nice and typically look at someone, but I think I'm close to getting this damn thing running."

"Uh… ok then.." Danse stuttered a little. He grabbed a seat close by and pulled it up closer to her and took a seat. He got himself as comfortable as he could before speaking again.

"I'm sorry. Obviously, if I had known more about you, I wouldn't have pushed you so far to a break. "He started with, rubbing his neck with one hand. "I know it's not much of an excuse. But, after seeing how upset it really got you, I felt pretty shitty about it. Felt like a complete dick when I saw Pickman holding you hostage in the moment."

Avery had listened, but she hadn't said anything to him; thinking there was more.

"In fairness; I just don't tolerate people with a reckless way like yours. I guess knowing what I know now it makes a little sense why you do things the way you have. But, even then it doesn't subside the fact I find you reckless, immature and stupid at times with your actions sometimes." He finished, sitting back in his chair, and waiting for what she had to throw at him.

She sat there silently, still had her face and hands digging around into the bike. The silence seemed to be choking Danse a bit, but he sat there patiently.

Avery finally had pulled herself away from the bike, her hands covered in oil and grease and a few smudges on her face.

She pushed herself up off the ground and walked over to the work bench. She grabbed the towel that was laying on it and began wiping the grease from her face first, followed by her hands.

"Sorry for the silence, she said, starting to work on her hands. "I was listening. But in the silence I was trying to piece something together about that damn bike."

She finished cleaning her hands and threw the towel back onto the table. She turned her back to him and began fidgeting with another piece.

"You can relax, I'm not gonna chew you out any more." She said calmly. She held a screwdriver in one hand and the part in the other. "I accept your apology."

Danse looked over at her puzzled. He couldn't believe that it was that easy.

"That's really it?" Danse asked. He pushed himself off the chair and walked over to her. "You don't have… Well, anything thing 'smart-mouthy' to say for how much of an ass I was to you?... You're not even going to call me every name in the book that you can imagine?"

Avery fiddled with the part for a little longer and then placed it back on the table. She grabbed the hand towel again amd wiped away the grease she built up again.

"I'm Avery. I'm not your visual idea of what a colossal bitch should be like." Avery replied, digging a corner of the towel under her nails. "Getting my forgiveness isn't as hard as everyone thinks. Yeah, I come off as the strong, lippy little bitch. But, there is more to it if you actually look at it from another angle."

She threw the towel back down again and pushed the stuff aside. She then pulled herself onto the table for a seat.

"You're a good guy Danse; if you weren't you wouldn't have saved my ass out there. That's an obvious assumption. And I understand the concern you had of this sudden stranger coming in and acting like they know more than you and have a history cuz of a past thing." She looked down at her lap, rubbing her fingers on the palm of one hand as she continued. "But you let the anger of it get to you. You're lucky that I didn't claw you out any worse than I can. I simply could tell you just needed to be knocked off your high horse and back on the ground for a moment."

"I… I think I get what you're saying." He muttered, rubbing the back of his neck again and averting his eyes in another direction. "Either way, I hope you accept the apology enough that I would like to try and work with you again on some missions…"

Avery smirked a bit. She looked away from him for a moment and then glanced back at him.

"I'll tell you what," she started, picking up a piece from the table and showing it to him. "Turns out I need 3 more of these pieces to get the bike running. Help me get them tomorrow, I'll forgive you and I'll let you test ride the thing with me."

Danse chuckled a bit. He took the piece from Avery's hand and examined.

"Fuse chips?" He asked while examining it. "We have some here if you really need them."

"Yeah but there's a few styles you guys don't. When Nate was off saving another settlment for the Minutemen, I asked him to scope out a vehicle dealership that most likely had the fuses I need. I just need to run in, take down a couple ghouls and get the fuses." She explained to him. In the process of informing him of thing, she was showing a map of the local area and pointing out the spot.

"It's about a 3-4 hour walk from here. I'd like to do it as early as possible." Avery mentioned. "You in?"


	16. 16 Sorrow Memories and A Joyride

"See, told you it wasn't too terrible." Avery said, sliding the fuses into her bag. Danse stood by and played look out as Avery pulled herself together before heading back.

"Took us a little longer than you said it would though." Danse responded.

Avery had pulled the last strap of her bag onto her shoulder and then picked up her weapon.

"Trust me, I wasn't too thrilled on that either." She said, nudging Danse as a signal to start moving. "I may act all poise and perfect cuz of being a leader, but you don't understand how crazy it drives me when my timing estimates end up spanding out longer than I planned."

"What does that mean exactly?" Danse asked as he began to follow.

"Well, even though in this world it was really easy to get over it, I grew up with terrible social anxiety. Mostly I just hated being out in public for so long." She answered, slowing down her pace to keep with him. "Whenever I needed to though, I always made sure I had a list of what I needed and estimated how long it would take me. Helped for the most part."

"And what happened if it didn't?" He asked. He grew pretty interested in Avery. Probably because with a world completely different from hers, it was nice to hear completely different things about someone's life.

"Well, back then, I would have gotten really upset to a point I had my 'bubble' mood. A phrase meaning that I basically kept all to myself and did things like hide away in my room or pile all my blankets and pillows into a corner." Avery chuckled a little towards the end.

"How is that funny?" He questioned, finding her attitude in the moment puzzling. "That sounds pretty lonely to me."

"It was," she said, still keeping a smile on her face. "I just… remembered something my mother had told a guy that I was dating once." She began to chuckle a bit more. "We were shopping for jackets, and in my high school years, I loved wearing jackets when I could. So, here I am, gawking and admiring how cute or comfortable a jacket is; mom and the temporary boyfriend are standing by and I over hear my mom go: 'ya know, some girls like high heels and make up and hand bags. Not her! She loves jackets and blankets and pillows. And while her taste in fashion is still tolerable, I'm ok with it cuz it's cheap!'"

Danse chuckled a little to Avery's story. He obviously couldn't picture the experience, but it was still enjoyable to hear.

"I guess when you say 'temporary boyfriend' she made it difficult to let you keep one around, huh?" He asked, wanting to know more.

"Nah. Mom left that job to my brothers and my dad." She responded. Her smile had suddenly faded with the answer. Danse had noticed and felt bad for asking.

"I'm sorry… if I did so, I didn't mean to strike a nerve." He said, trying to keep her spirits up.

"It's fine…" Avery said, but Danse could feel her lying through her teeth. He then proceeded to stop her and talk about it.

"You can confide in me, if you want." He said, making full eye contact with her.

Avery averted her eyes for the moment. She didn't want to speak or think of what Octavia had told her the other day. But she knew eventually she had to.

"Octavia… was sent here by my dad, to come find me." She started with, but she was then choking on air. She steadied herself, taking a few deep breaths, and then continued. "She's been here for about a month looking for me. And, even though she has… even if I wanted to return… she can't find the frequency signal they used to for her to get back. It's like the frequency she was supposed to trace back is being canceled out..."

Danse looked at her with concern. He could tell this was a touchy subject that she didn't want to discuss. But, he had to ask to be sure of the reasoning.

"Is it just that… or is there more to this?" Danse asked, trying to show his concern.

Avery's gaze was now at the ground, and then looking at the direction they were heading.

"Remember how I said how I had hope to do right by my father one last time before he went?" She asked him. Danse nodded, and she continued. "Well, during the years most high school grads were planning on college or lifelong careers… I had chose the career life, and it came with a heavy burden at some point that really made my father disappointed in me."

She began choking on words again. Not wanting to say anything else, she just began walking again. Danse hesitated for a moment and finally followed behind.

"Avery, talk to me." Danse called out. Even though it had been 4 months since they met and 2 since Pickman and his apology, he grew use to having her around. He felt a bit attached to her on a level he could explain at the time.

"Avery." Danse called out louder. "Please talk to me."

Avery stopped dead in her tracks. Danse could hear the heavy breathing from her nose; she was fighting something back.

"Avery… Bottling it isn't going to help…" Danse said, trying to return his voice to a comfort for her.

When Avery had finally turned to face him, her eyes were blood shot red. Her cheeks were covered with tear streaks. She struggled for a moment to fight the words from her mouth.

"Let's just say in that time, I went from being his precious Garnet stone… to nothing… me being here, was because I wanted to make him proud again…" she wiped her face with the sleeve of her jacket and took in a few deep breaths before speaking again. "Let's just keep it at that please…"

Danse wanted to push her more for a more understanding answer, but he didn't want to have her break in the moment. If he was going to do that, he would at least wait til they had returned to the Prydwen.

Avery and Danse had returned back to the Airport. Octavia, Ingram and Maxson had been waiting on them.

"Nate's not here?" Danse asked, stepping out of his power armor.

"Nah, he's off running errands for Teegan again." Maxson replied. "We're you able to find what you needed Avery?"

Avery had smiled and sat her bag down on a nearby table. She dug around for a few seconds before finally pulling a small box from the bag. Within that box contained the fuse piece she needed for the bike along with numerous spares to keep on hand.

"Right here, and in beautiful condition." She answered, walking over to the bike. She got down on her knees and pulled away a side panel to the bike's interior. After fiddling the fuse into the perfect spot, she placed the panel back on and got back to her feet.

"Well… guess there's a couple more things to do…" Avery continued. She walked up next to the bike. She grabbed the handles and was about to mount the thing until she looked over at Danse.

"You still wanna take the test ride with me Tin-can?"

Danse smirked, he really hated being called "the tin-can. But, since she didn't use it as much when they first met, he didn't mind it as much.

"Not even sure how to get onto one exactly." He admitted as he walked over to the bike.

"Just do what I do and sit behind me." She responded. She then threw her right leg over the seat and straddled herself over the bike. "Not that hard."

Danse hesitated a bit, but followed Avery's motion to a T. Avery sat down once Danse had made himself comfortable.

"Now, you're gonna have to wrap your hands around my waist to hold on and place your feet on the support bars here." She ordered, reaching down to put his feet into place for him.

"I-uh… A-a-are you sure?" Danse stuttered. The most contact he had with Avery this close was when he carried her all the way to the Prydwen. To him, he felt even a woman's waist area was a dangerous territory for anyone to put their hands on.

"Relax. I basically gave you permission to do so." She assures him and pulls his hands around her waist.

"You can chicken out Danse and I'll ride with her." Maxson said. A light smile spread across his face as he leaned against a table.

"N-n-no, I'm fine, Maxson." Danse responded, still stuttering.

Avery had kicked the kickstand up from the ground and held the bike up herself. She reached for the key to turn it on. She checked for the bike to be in neutral, squeezed the levers she needed. She took in a deep breath, held it for a moment and pressed the start button.

 ** _Vrrrrrroooooommmmmmm_**!

The bike had started running. Avery began chuckling hysterically. Octavia was in excitement and the rest were in the Avery "holy shit" moment when she got something done.

"Alright… it's a great start." Avery said. She glanced back at Danse, who gave her a smile. "Octavia, go open the door. I'm gonna start slow by driving us outside. Least that way if brakes fail, we'll still be on base."

Octavia did as ordered, and began entering the access key. Avery was reminding Danse to hold tight before letting both feet off the ground and giving the gas the will to move. The bike gently rolled with the commands coming from Avery. Ingram and Maxson followed close. Octavia stayed to close the shop and then caught up.

Others from the Brotherhood watched in awe as she cruised down the concrete hallway. She made a gentle turn that lead them to their 'courtyard' like spot outdoors. By now, almost everyone around was there to watch. Avery stopped the back and straddled the bike again.

When Octavia caught up with them, she gave Avery her back and placed it over her shoulder for her.

"I got a walkie-talkie stashed in there for you. If you break down, call me on it and we'll come find you." She assured her. Even with Octavia and Avery being an odd opposite/similar pairing, Octavia was always the one that kept Avery on top when she would forget things she needed to take. Avery nodded to her in a thanks.

Avery looked back at Danse once more. He nodded back as his way of telling her he was ready. The Brotherhood had cleared a path to the exit, ready for her to fly off.

She places herself back down on the bike once more and did the same as before. She started out slow to let the others admire as they ride by, but when she hit the exit into the Commonwealth, they were gone almost like a bullet from a gun.


	17. 17 Just A Look

"Well… plus side the thing runs…" Avery said into the walkie-talkie. Danse was leaned up against the tree and Avery sat down by his feet. "Problem is the fucker burns through gas quicker than I imagine."

"Well luckily, there's a signal grenade in your bag as well. Before you throw it, give us an idea of what direction you guys are in." Octavia said back.

"We can see the airport from this hilltop. Given the sun's directions I'm saying North." Avery answered as she threw the signal a few feet in front of them, sending a red smoke stream in the air.

"Alrighty, we spot you. Maxson's sending me in a bird to get you guys. It'll be about 10 minutes when we get there."

Avery answered to sign off, then place the walking back into the bag. She laid down in the dirt with her hands to her forehead as she groaned.

"I should've figured with these damn things running on nuclear power that it burns quicker!" She yelled to herself, then threw her hands over her head and stared at the sky.

Danse looked down at her, and actually chuckled a bit. He somehow enjoyed seeing Avery stress in a little spat like this. But this confused Avery. She sat up looking at him puzzled.

"You're not… getting pissy about this…" she said hesitantly. "How are you not getting pissy about this?"

Danse shrugged his shoulders a bit before he answered. "Probably the adrenaline rush still buzzing around in me." He then sat down next to her. "No one's rode one of those things since the great war explosion. You just made history by getting one to run since then. Together, we're the first to ride one since then."

Avery continued to look at him puzzled. He was actually… optimistic about it all. He was actually in a good mood.

"I don't like this." Avery responded. "We need to find a new stick to put up your ass and bring the old Danse back."

Danse laughed at her response, then stared over at her.

"I guess it is weird for me to be like this, huh?" He asked, shifting his body to lay down on the ground.

"A little…" Avery responded. This really was abnormal to her. Granted, she did enjoy seeing Danse enjoy himself for once since they met, this also concerned her… this wasn't the first time her being around someone changed them for the better. But, it worried her if later on, it would turn south like it did in her past.

Avery could tell her bond with Danse was getting stronger. They felt more relaxed with one another. Avery and Danse had learned more about one another. And, even though Danse had known of one of her biggest secrets, there was so much more he didn't know. She hoped to keep it that way, but how could see when they told each other just about everything at this point.

She was sitting there thinking, staring into the distance when Danse had finally noticed the blank expression on her face.

"You ok?" He asked, reaching up to touch his shoulder.

"Huh?, she said, coming back to reality and glancing at him.

"Just seeing if you were ok. You kind of spaced out on me for a minute." He said, propping himself onto his elbows.

"Yeah. Just over thinking of how I'm gonna fix the fuel issue on the bike." She lied, but made it convincing. "My universe has them running on gasoline rather than nuclear waste. So I'm not sure how to go about it."

"Well, you were able to get it running. Surely you'll find a way around it." He said, lightly patting her on the back.

She smirked a bit, then went back to over thinking again. Danse was now staring at the view before him. Even though the post-apocalyptic world was a devastating result from a horrid move made by someone's government, he found the view peaceful.

Avery wanted to be as cheery as Danse seemed to be in the moment, but this moment made her emotions uneasy. She was afraid. She was afraid of falling down again. Difference between the past and now is there are many hidden secrets that eventually will come out. But, Avery wanted to keep them hidden as long as she could.

She wanted to keep what she had now going. She didn't want any of it to change yet. She didn't want things to go further than she feared they would.

Danse's sight was still fixated on the scenery before them. Eventually, he had turned his gaze towards her. And, he had stared for quite a while.

He examined everything of her. How she always wore her hair in a high ponytail, with strands of what should be bangs falling on the sides.

He noticed the printings on her body. Cade had only written down what he saw without being hidden by cloth. But, in an occasion like this where she wore a loose tank top over a bra or swim top, he could see the hummingbird on her left shoulder. He remembered her saying how her dad enjoyed watching them when she was younger.

He noticed the scars in detail. Not the ones that she occured from this universe, but her past one. He remembered the light scar on her cheek from a cat they owned when she was a baby. The scar on her left palm from a pocket knife when she whittled. One on her wrist, she admitted to being something when she suffered from depression. He remembered.

He noticed the way she wore her makeup. She only highlighted her eyes with liner and then a simple nude lipstick on her lips. Some occasions the color would be a deep red or black, but those were very rare.

When he realized what he was doing, he was brought back to reality. The sound of a vertibird came hovering towards them, causing the two to get back on their feet. "Bout time." Avery grunted, pushing herself onto her feet. She walked over to the bike and kicked the kickstand out if place to move the bike.

The vertibird made its landing; Octavia and a brotherhood-knight were the ones to greet them. Danse assisted Avery with getting the bike on the bird, before assisting her inside, and following behind.

On the flight back, Octavia and Avery discussed how they were going to fix the bike's gas issue. Danse kept to himself, pondering on the recent event.

He couldn't believe what he had done. Sure, he had random encounters with other females in the past that lead nowhere… but he realised this one was different. It was difficult for him to understand. He hated her in the start. He despised the way she did things and how she handled situations. But… she's also the first person he grew so close to in, not only a short time, but in a long time…

Since the death of his friend, an ungodly experiment courtesy of the institute, he didn't care for attachment. He kept himself in soldier mold this whole time. He didn't let anyone or anything get into his head. And he noticed, for once instead of thinking of how to handle his next coming mission, he was thinking of her. She had done something without their knowledge that made him see things at a different perspective. He cared… he actually cared about her. Not that he didn't care about his fellow soldiers. But, he cared about her in a different way.

The same even applied to Nate. Even though his thoughts of Nate were nowhere near the levels of thoughts he had for Avery, he realised that he had become close to Nate in a different way.

He knew Nates stand points were somewhat similar to Avery's: only kill when needed and that some things deserve a second chance if there's is one. Nate had a heart like Avery. They both wanted to see things change for the good in everyone. Even though it went against Brotherhood protocol, Danse respected it. Maxson did on a few occasions, but that was a different story.

The whole time he spent thinking about his sudden increase of interest towards Avery, they had returned to the Airport base. Octavia and Avery were unloading the bike and rolling it to the shop. Danse had told them he would catch up with them later, making an excuse to return to the Prydwen on his own.

Once up there, he stayed upon the main deck before entering. He leaned down on the railing and glanced down to the airport. His mind was wandering again for a moment, thinking of her once again.

He rested his head into his hands for a moment. The fight between soldier Danse and humane Danse was a massive headache to him. There were no rules in BoS on their regulation of feelings to fellow humans, apart or not of the Brotherhood. But, parts of him felt as if it was wrong to start growing such feelings for someone. Especially Avery.

They lived very different lives… well, she lived many of them. For him, he lived almost 30 of them; only about 25 that he could remember.

She lived in a universe that didn't suffer a war as badly as this one did. But, even with being here before the bombs, she had experienced it first hand. Danse didn't exist, neither did Brotherhood or even the idea that universal travel was possible.

She grew up on everything brains and bronze. She continued to educate herself and the others around her. She fought battles and killed those that deserved it. Not that Danse didn't learn and strengthen himself overtime. It was just that she had an easier access to it all. Not to mention the differences between their worlds; something Avery was still trying to figure out that made the two trail off completely different paths.

Danse thought that the only other person around was the Knight-guard that always stood at the door. To his surprise, Nate had been there waiting for him.

He came out the main entrance and looked over noticing Danse. Danse had now removed his face from his hands and was staring back out at the Commonwealth. Nate slowly approached him, and then caught a better glimpse at Danse's expression. He knew what it meant, because he had experienced it with Nora.

"Avery got your ass stranded out there, didn't she?" Nate asked, a small smile on his face and he joined Danse. Danse looked up at him with a smirk and then back to the view.

"You could say that." He answered in a soft tone. He pushed himself from his elbows to his hands, gripping on the railing and glancing down at the airport.

It was difficult for anyone to spot out Avery on the Airport ground. She was always being a goof and you could hear her laughter; quietly from on the Prydwen and the motor of it running, but everyone could easily tell it was Avery.

On the ground, she was goofing around with some of the young trainees. They were playing a game she reintroduced to them: basketball. She would play a normal game with them, but would then trail off with a joking cheating matter that sent them all chasing and tackling her when she had the ball. Maxson had displeased of it at first, but then found it acceptable when he noticed it had improved their drive to be better soldiers. It was basically a stress relief to the young and old around them.

Danse watched, and Nate noticed the small smile that suddenly appeared on his face.

"She got you good, didn't she" nate said jokingly and nudging his shoulder on Danse's. Danse came back to now and shook his head a bit at Nate.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Danse said, pushing himself off the railing and beginning to walk towards the entrance.

"Bullshit." Nate hissed back, following behind. "You were thinking about her again."

Danse continued to act as if he didn't know what Nate was talking about, but Nate wasn't gonna give up that easy.

"Danse, I've seen the way you look at her." He mentioned, walking beside him and trying to keep up his pace. "I've seen the way you examined her every move and every word. I've seen how in such a short time, you've grown to know her more and faster than you have with me since I showed up."

"You're just imagining things, Nate." Danse exclaimed. By now they had reached the canteen area of the ship and Nate was still on his tail.

"If I'm imagining things then why would I bring it up?" Nate asked him, trying to catch him off balance. Danse had turned around with annoyance to face Nate.

"Do tell me, cuz I don't know." Danse snapped, hoping to throw him off finally

"Cuz I've been doing the same thing…" he admitted with a bit of shame to his tone. Danse looked at him with a bit of jealously and shock. Almost a slight betrayal until Nate followed up.

"Only difference between you and me: she doesn't look back at me the same way we look at her. She only looks back at you the way we look at her." He said. Danse's body began to slump a little from Nate's words, feeling a bit guilty. He then let out a sigh and began to walk off again.

"Even if you're right, your odds to be with her are probably so much better than anyone's here." Danse said with a tone of disappointment. Nate continued to follow behind.

"Danse, you're an idiot if you're gonna push this aside so easily without even seeing." Nate said, trying to be positive. "So yeah, I just admitted I'm also attracted to Avery. But, at least I'm man enough to realise that she doesn't feel the same about me. I'm more like the friendly brother to her rather than a romantic interest."

Now they were on the lowest level of the ship. Danse was trying so hard to shake Nate off his tail, but it never seemed to work. At this point, he finally caved, and gave Nate his full attention.

"That may be true. But…" Danse started with, then cutting himself off with silent for a moment. He was trying to make sure he said this right without sounding completely stupid. "We're so different… we hated the fucking hell out of one another in the very start. So much to a point that I was an ignorant ass hole about it."

Danse leaned up against a wall and crossed his arms over his chest. He averted his sight to the floor.

"And you two learned to work together shortly after that." Nste replied, continuing to keep the positivity afloat. "You two are almost inseparable now! She's not even a legal Brotherhood member and you take her on almost every mission you go on!"

Danse had his snapping point. He turned to face Nate and stare him down.

"Listen here. I really don't want to talk about this anymore. As your sponsor and a higher ranking than you, I order you to put this nonsense aside and move on." Danse growled. "Is that clear."

Nate was disappointed and upset with Danse at this point. He slowly backed away from him with a glare.

"Sorry. Just nice to see you care about something other than this god damn army shit." Nate said. Him, being a previous soldier before the bombs himself, hated men like Danse. Those who thought things like wars and shit were the only things to matter.

Nate had turned away from Danse and walked off. Danse was left there in a sudden disappointment of himself.

He knew Nate was right. He was just too ashamed to admit it. But, he also feared more that with his and Avery's differences, it was just impossible.


	18. 18 they said kisses make it better

Avery and Danse had accompanied Nate to Sanctuary Hill. Nate admitted from time to time that he find it an annoyance how Preston always had some settlement to go save. So he figured Danse and Avery could help build some gun turrets since Maxson had nothing for them to do.

Sanctuary was a relaxing and calm settlement. It had a good two dozen or so amount of people both from within the Commonwealth and the Wasteland.

Avery was greeted with open arms. Everyone warmed up to her easily. For Danse, it was a bit of a struggle with him being apart of Brotherhood and such.

"Danse, if you want, you can work on some of the Power Suit armors." Nate asked, pointing at the various ones they had set up in one of the homes. Nate was trying to collect enough that if they needed to start sending people out to scavenge and help other groups apart of the Minutemen, then people would have better armor protecting them than what they already had.

"Avery, I still want you to help Sturges with making a few more gun turrets." He said, pointing out a man who could almost be mistaken for Elvis Presley. "I only need the last two he's got half way through before sending them off to a settlement far from here." He then left Danse to do his work and took Avery over to Sturges.

When Danse began his work, he would take one power suit out from the home and examine it carefully. It was roomier outside and cooler too rather than the over heated sauna the people called a house.

Every now and then, he would glance over at Avery and Sturges. He noticed the way she would smile and laugh at something Sturges would say to her and that annoyed him slightly. It would get worse whenever he noticed Sturges just centimeters away from Avery. He was only helping her with how the turrets were put together, but Danse let his jealous show a little and think the complete opposite it.

"Why you worryin' so much kid?" A gruntle female voice spoke up behind him. "She's only got eyes for you. You're worrin' too much."

When Danse turned around, he noticed an elderly woman 3 times smaller than him. She wore a teal jacket, a colorful yet torn and dirty scarf, a basic pair of jeans and shoes and a head wrap on her head.

"I have no clue what you're talking about lady." He said snobby like to her, trying to keep focus on his work.

"Oooh boy. Even though Mama Murphy's got the chems in her system, I wouldn't even need them to read your aura when you're lookin' at her." She slipped through her lips. She gave him a eery smile and continued. "But you will need the sight to know of this. She has some heavy baggage; and I'm talking more than you or anyone else here in this world. And once ya do, you're gonna have the toughest decision to make in your entire life."

Danse pretended to ignore Mama Murphy and the things she said. But he had heard her very clearly and it bothered him.

He glanced back over at Avery and Sturges again. They seemed to be having a good time talking to one another, but Danse's displeasure of seeing it continued to grow. There was even a moment that he didn't bother to pay attention to his own work and ended up cutting himself on a piece of metal.

"Fucking hell!" He yelled, grasping the hand her cut and squeezing it tight. Avery and Nate overheard, and stopped what they were doing for a moment to examine the situation.

"What'da'ya do to yourself?" Nate yelled from the distance as he got closer to him. Avery followed close behind.

"Fucking cut myself on some metal." He admitted, still squeezing his fist tight.

"Let me look." Avery said, slowly reaching for his hand.

He gently jerked them away and began to mumble. "It's fine. Don't worry."

Avery ignored his remarked and grabbed his fist without warning.

"With that much blood coming out, I wouldn't be so sure." She said. She slowly tried to pry his fingers away from his fist, but he wouldn't budge.

"Danse. Let me look at it damn it!" She exclaimed as she was getting annoyed with his temper.

Danse hesitated for a moment, but finally caved and allowed Avery to look.

The cut was deep, but the bleeding had subsided quickly. Avery was careful not to touch his cut directly as she examined it. But the pain had spread through his entire hand, making it tender.

"Nate, you happen to have thin fishing line and some needles?" She asked, suddenly ripping a piece of her pant leg.

"The hell are you doing?!" Danse had blurted, watching in confusion.

"I need to get the bleeding to lighten a little more before I stitch it." She explained as she wrapped the piece around his hand.

"It's really deep, but with the stitches you'll live."

Nate had ran off in the moment. Preston, who came by as well when he heard Danse yelling, ran into the food supply stash and returned with a bottle of whiskey for Avery as she had asked him to do.

"What exactly is this good for?" Preston asked, handing her the bottle. "Why don't we just use a stimpak on him to heal it?"

"Cuz you guys need to learn how to heal without them." She answered. "Can you also grab me a towel or a rag please?"

Preston nodded, and ran into one of the bathing homes for a few towels. Nate had arrived back before Preston with the fishing line and needle.

"What exactly are you gonna do?" Nate asked, handing her the supplies.

"Gonna stitch his wound." She answered. "And like I told Preston, you guys need to learn how to heal and treat injuries and wounds when you don't have a stimpak on ya. Let alone to make them last longer."

Preston had finally returned with a few towels for Avery. She ordered, and he followed, to hold some of the towel in a bunch and poured the whiskey onto it.

"What is the whiskey good for?" Mama Murphy asked her.

"It's actually a really good sterilizer for wounds when you don't have the fancy hospital shit." She explained. "I've heard some people using vodka and wine, but whiskey is the best." she took the towel from Preston and exchanged his empty palms to hold the whiskey.

Avery then began to undo the bonds from Danse hand as she ordered Nate to thread the fishing line through the needle.

"Now, this is really gonna fucking sting. So I need you to get your mind wandering off on something else." She warned Danse. She then order Preston to dip the needle into the whiskey to sterilize it as she began pressing the whiskey soaked towel on Danse's hand.

At first, Danse had yelled in pain. But then was distracted by a medium stinging sensation on his face. Suddenly realizing Avery had slapped him.

"What the fuck was that for?" He yelled, taking his free hand and gently rubbing his cheek.

"It took your mind off it for a moment, didn't it?" She asked, looking at him and helping him avert his gaze to his other hand.

He noticed she continued to dab away for a few more moments, realizing she did it to distract the pain.

"For a man with mostly muscle and nerve, you sure wine like a baby a lot." She mumbled, finishing up with the whiskey cloth and then taking the needle into her fingertips.

The others stood around watching and chuckled at Avery's words.

"Now, I don't recommend slapping sense into anyone at anytime " Avery said, readying the needle at one end of the cut. "But, not only did it obviously work to distract him from the pain… I also got a good random reason to slap him with no negative intentions so that's always nice."

The others chuckled. Danse sat there quietly, trying to keep his mind off the pain. He did feel the needle pressing into his hand, but the pain was basically numb now that it didn't bother him as badly.

At that point, his mind just began to trail away with whatever came to his mind first. It just happened to be here. Ever since that discussion with Nate, she was on his mind more than ever.

She was on his mind when she wasn't around on mission; wondering what she was up to. And when she was the one away doing something, he always worried about her. He knew she could handle her own out there, but it always bothered him when he thought of the idea of if she never came back.

He then began thinking of what Mama Murphy had just told him. About how Avery held a lot more baggage than any of them knew. How, when the time came, that it was going to be the most difficult decision he could ever make.

The curiosity began to grow. He knew she had more to hide, and only talked about it when she was ready to. But he worried about Mama Murphy's words. How big was this secret? Would it change his views on Avery? How would he handle it when he did find out?

Through the whole time he had his mind running elsewhere, Avery had completely stitched up his hand. When he finally noticed, she was halfway done bandaging it.

"This is just to protect the stitches." She assured him. She cut off the strand and tucked it though a few times. She kept a smile and jokingly bent down and kissed the palm of his hand where the stitching laid. "Usually meant for kid, but mama and dad always said kisses make boo-boo's better."

Danse had blushed completely red with her remarks. The others still stood around snickering at his reaction.

Nate had distracted everyone and politely ordered them to return to work. Avery got up from her seat and went to return the supplies to their spots.

Danse was left there frozen. He couldn't believe what had just happened. True the kiss was in playful banter and not normally where a kiss would go, but it touched him more than he would ever imagine.

He squeezed his hand lightly, admiring the work she had done. He was lost in the ideas now; he wanted her.

As he sat there, he didn't noticed Nate walking back to him. Nate reached out to Danse with a bottle of beer and nudged him lightly with it.

"You still wanna deny that you ain't interested in her." He said, still holding the beer.

Danse sighed, taking the beer from Nate and taking one big swig of it. Nate took a seat next to him, and both were watching Avery return to help Sturges with the turrets.

"I figured putting her with Sturges would make you boil a little." Nate admitted, taking a sip of his own drink. "Just didn't think you'd act like a goof and cut your damn hand."

Danse gave Nate a glare. He even punched him in the shoulder a little rough while calling him a jackass and drinking more of his beer.

"So, what's your plan lover boy?" Nate asked teasingly, followed with finishing off the last of his beer.

Danse continued his gaze on Avery. He couldn't help it at this point. He was more devoted to the idea of how much he wanted her. But, he gave a heavy sigh, placed his beer on the ground beside him and slumped forward in his spot.

"I… I still don't think I will…" He softly said to him. "She's an amazing woman. She's smart, she's brave, she's beautiful; she's every guys dream girl."

"So why are you still trying to push aside the fact?" Nate asks, setting his bottle down as well.

"There's… there's this nagging feeling that she's hiding more that we know…" he answered. He takes his uninjured hand and begins to rub his forehead from the confusion. "I'm certain that even I won't be able to handle it…"

"Well, I'm not sure what to say to that." Nate said with a sigh. He then pushed himself off his seat and patted Danse on the shoulder. "I guess the best I can say is if you fall hard enough before you find out, you shouldn't worry at that point."

Nate had turned to leave before he could thank him for some kind of advice. He was just left their to gawk his eyes at Avery.


	19. 19 12 brothers and the real name for 13

The three agreed to crash in Sanctuary for the night. Nate had offered one of the apartment set ups for them as he went to his own quarters.

The space Danse and Avery shared was simple; three rooms that consisted of a basic living space and the other two with a bed for each of them.

Danse had readied himself for bed before Avery did. He had stripped from his Brotherhood suit and into his military work pants and a black tank top. He organized his things in the moment that he was alone, until a knock came from his door.

"It's open." He called out, still shuffling around through his things.

The door slowly creeped open, and Avery face had peered in.

"Just wanted to come and check on your hand before going to bed." She said, inviting herself into the rest if the room.

She had also took herself out of the clothes she had worn that morning, and wore a clean shirt, sports bra and work pants for the night.

Danse was a little caught off guard when Avery entered. He had noticed her hair was flat and wet, meaning she had returned from the bath house.

"Come on, let me look." She said, plopping down onto one end of the bed and gesturing him to sit across from her.

He hesitated at first, but then began to move his things to the floor for a spot to sit.

Avery had pulled a pair of scissors and a fresh roll of gauze from her back pocket. She took Danse's hand and snipped loose one of the parts of the bandage and began unraveling it from his hand.

"So. Did you learn to do this by yourself, or is it another thing your father taught you?" He asked a bit nervously.

"Actually, my mother taught me how to do this." She answered, finished with removing the bandages and examining her work. "She was a children's nurse when I was growing up. Yeah, there are some things I picked up from a textbook, but some things you can't learn from just words."

"So then what did she do exactly to teach you?" He followed with. Avery had now begun to wrap clean gauze around his hand.

"My brother's. They always came home from somewhere in the woods all bruised and scratched to hell. Rare days they came home with cuts needed stitching. One incident we had to actually go to the hospital instead of relying on mom." She answered. For a moment she chuckled, remembering the reason. "My 8th oldest brother thought it was a good idea to re-enact being a Disney princess-slash-historic icon; Pocahontas. Got his damn ass bit by a raccoon and had to get him tested quickly for rabies."

Danse chuckled a bit, amused by her story.

"So how do you play into all of that? Surely you had a few scrapes and bruises too?" He asked.

"I did… But I was her reason for becoming a children's nurse." She answered as she finished up the bandage.

"How so?" Danse asked, in curiosity as he gently squeezed his hand like before.

"Well, I'll try to explain best in detail, cuz I don't know exactly what you know about birthing babies." She said in a joking yet serious manner. "Usually they're suppose to come out head first, right?"

"Well, yeah…" he answered. He knew of it to an extent, but was a bit uncomfortable to talk about it.

"Well… instead and according to her words I was 'in such a rush to get here, that I came out ass first, literally. And she ended up having to have what's called a C-section." She then began to trace a line from her navel to her crotch. "Usually it's just along the stomach. But my case they had to cut all the way down to her privates and they had to do it right otherwise we both would've been goners."

Danse had looked at her a bit horrified to her statement and she broke out in laughter.

"You asked" exclaimed, trying to calm herself down.

"So… you and your mom almost dying… is the reason she became a nurse?" He hesitated to ask, fearing for whatever she had left to answer.

She had finally calmed her laughing fit down to finish her statement.

"Yes and no." She said as she pulled her legs completely onto the bed, sitting Indian style. "It was how the nurses took care of us afterwards. Mom said they were so caring and nice to her; better than some others when she had some of my brothers."

"Some?" Danse questioned. "You mean she didn't have all of you?"

"Nope! She only birthed 8 of us. But in still the youngest at number 13 of us all." She answered.

Danse looked at her in complete shock. He knew she had a few brothers at hand, but didn't imagine 12 of them.

"Jesus that sounds like too much trouble to remember names." He said.

"It was, even I admit when some have semi-unique names." She explained. "Basically just uncommon ones."

"Which would me what exactly?" He asked.

"Well." She said, shifting her body a bit and listing out names on her fingers. "Barnibus is the eldest. Then Kyoya. Collins. Thelonious, Baxter, Lapis, Ashley, Cornelius, Jules, Verne, Gilderoy and Aberforth."

Danse snickered a bit and ended her list. "And then there's Avery."

She smirked, leaning back against the wall that also touched the bed and stared off into the distance. "Well… yeah."

Danse was puzzled. The way she exclaimed those sudden words threw him off a bit.

"What's that suppose to me?" He asked.

"Well… Avery's my middle name." She answered softly. "The only ones who call me by my first name are family and those who get close enough to know me… so far only one person has been able to do that."

"You mean Octavia?" He asked, pulling himself fully onto the bed.

"Well, her too. But she never uses it cuz we're just best friends." She answered.

The room was silent for a minute, Avery was still staring off at the door as Danse broke the silence.

"So, how is anyone suppose to find out if they don't know it?" Danse asked. He wanted to know how. He figured this was his key to test himself. If he really wanted her that bad, he would have to figure it out.

Avery chuckled and began to push her off the bed. She shook her head and began to say goodnight to Danse. He stopped her from getting far by gently grabbing hold of her hand.

"Surely you can give me a hint?" He asked gently. She turned to face him and their eyes locked.

Avery could feel his want. It was something she had been hiding back too. But given her past, it feared her deeply. But she didn't want to leave him to pester her for a clue.

She turned back to face him and bent down to his level for a moment. She leaned into him and gently placed a kiss upon his cheek and pulled away to say: "a combination of ruby and sapphire."

She said nothing else and she let go of Danse and left the room. Leaving him both stunned and speechless once more.


	20. 20 A Heart Over the mind

Avery was up earlier than Danse and Nate were the next morning. She slipped into her daily attire and pulled on her leather jacket as she stepped outside into the morning cold.

The sun was barely rising and only a couple of other settlers were up. She figured this was a better time than any to take a simple walk around without someone shadowing her.

She went back to retrieve her gun before venturing off into the woods. To her the gentle breeze and the sliver of sunlight made her relax so easily.

She kept a close eye on her surroundings, always being sure to stay safe, but there wasn't anything out of the ordinary… at first.

She had ventured far out from the settlement, but it was enough to stay in her view. Until, she heard the faint roars of a creature not lurking far. These sounds were then followed by human voices as she grew closer.

She made sure to keep herself as hidden as possible as she grew closer to the sounds. Upon further inspection, she caught glimpse of several Deathclaws laying still in the dirt. She continued to hear the cheering and laughter of humans and the weakening roar of a creature.

She had to inch closer. Something within her had said that something was terribly wrong here. The closer she got, the louder the noise.

When she finally caught glimpse of a human, she quickly ducked back behind a tree. She then slowly peered out from behind the tree as she listened.

"So, what do we do with the scrawny little shit?" One of them asked, kicking something metal and causing the weak roar to occur again. When she got a good enough glimpse, she saw a small cage sitting in between the three. Inside sat a young deathclaw that was backed into a corner in fear.

"It's fucking useless. Leave the little shit to die for all I care." Another said, kicking the opposite side of the cage hard enough to almost tip it. "It's no fun to kill when it ain't attacking you. Fuckers scared shitless."

Avery was disgusted. These people were only hunting for fun rather than food. Matters worse is the wonder of how they accomplished killing 5 of them so easily.

Avery slowly began to creep away from the "hunters" but kept them as far in their sight as possible. She wasn't gonna let them get away with this.

When she felt safe enough, she readied herself by attaching the scope piece to her gun. She brought her gun up a began to settle her sights on her first target.

When she felt securely locked, she took in a deep breath and slowly breathed out as she pulled the trigger.

"Holy fuck!" One of them yelled. The two remaining had pulled out their guns and frantically began searching around for here.

"Whoever you are, you better get the fuck out here!" The other yelled and stuttered. The shot threw them completely off guard.

Avery steadied her aim again, but when she rang the shot, it missed her target.

"Come on out you little bitch!" The 1st called as they slowly began to run in Avery's direction.

She steadied the shot once more. It wasn't what she hoped, but the bullet hit the hand if one of the bastards.

"Fucking shit!" The 1st yelled, dropping the gun and clenching its hand. "Fucker got me!"

"Screw it, let's just go before we end up like Everett there!" The 2nd one called. They both turned in agreement and began sprinting in the other direction.

Avery carefully followed behind them, making sure they had actually ran off. After a few minutes, Avery decided to turn back to the kill sight.

She returned to the captured creature that sat curled up in a corner still in fear.

"It's alright… they're not gonna hurt you now." She gently whispered. She slowly approached the cage, and bent down to mess with the lock. The young monster whined and howled in fear of her.

After fighting the lock for a couple moments, she successful accomplished opening the cage door. The creature had continued to cry out in fear. But she hoped to coast it out.

She reached into her side bag and pulled out a few pieces of cooked meurlierk meat. She started with throwing a few pieces to the creature and moved herself away to give it space. She sat at least a yard or so from the cages opening as she waited.

For a while longer, the creatures feared to move. It wasn't sure of Avery's actions. But the mirelurk meat slowly began to seem tempting and picked up the pieces on the cage floor.

After it had finished what she gave him, she pulled more from her bag and tossed a couple pieces outside the cage door.

The creature continued to remain hesitant, but slowly inched itself to the door to retrieve the offering.

"See? I'm not gonna hurt you." She said to the creature, pulling out more food from her bag. This time she still kept hold, but held it out for the creature to see.

It started to back away at first when she held the other hand up. She had hoped to make contact with the creature to give it the reassurance it needed.

"Come on buddy." She said softly, inching a little closer to it. "You've come this far out. Just give me a chance."

The creature stood still for a moment. Given it's recent events, she wouldn't be surprised if it was still fighting to trust her or not. Eventually it slowly began to push itself towards Avery. She sat patiently, letting it take its own time to process.

When it finally inched to her, it sniffed at the hand that held the meat. Avery slowly opened her hand flat to allow the creature the food. It sniffed away at first, keeping an eye in Avery and her hand in case of any movement. It had eventually began to slip its tongue onto her hand to grasp the meat and devoured it.

Avery had one more cooked meat in her bag. But when she held it this time, she held it further away with the other hand extended out.

"If you let me touch you, you can have it little guy." She said softly, slowly reaching her hand to its face.

The creature backed away a little at first. Avery had stopped and showed him the food at a better angle.

"See? I'm not tricking you for this. I just want to touch you is all." She said softly.

The creature cocked its head for a moment, as if it was studying everything about her. Eventually it moved, but it caught her by surprised from how it responded.

The creature came towards her and climbed into her lap. She allowed it to do what it wish, was to many sniff anywhere it could get its nose.

Avery gently began to lower her hand to touch its forehead, and was surprised from the gentle purring growl it made when she did.

She smiled, and finally gave it the last piece of cooked meat.

"Trust me now huh? Let's see then." She said, she slowly removed her jacket from herself, and carefully draped it around the young deathclaw to not spook it. She then carefully began to hold it close in her arms as she slowly began to push herself to her feet.

The creature stayed content and seemed even relaxed in her arms. Avery smiled down at the creature and gave a light sigh.

"Guess you're mine now huh?" She said, slowly turning back to the direction she came from and walked away with the creature at hand.

As she began to descend down the hill towards Sanctuary, Avery began to hear the yelling of a familiar voice.

"Avery, where the hell have you been?!"

She looked up for a moment and notices Sturges jogging towards her.

She quickly held up a hand and called out for him to stop.

"Hold on, let me come to you!" She yelled using her other hand to carry the creature.

Sturges stopped dead in his track at the bottom of the hill and awaited Avery to complete her descend.

"Danse and Nate went looking for you." He warned her, trying to catch his breath through the thick autumn air. "We heard gunfire and yelling in the distance. Someone told them you went-"

He stopped in mid sentence and stood in a horrifying shock to the sight in Avery's arms.

"Avery, what the fuck are you doing with that thing?!" He whispered loud to her, trying not to alert the others.

"The yelling was a group of gunners…" she said disappointing. "They slaughtered a nest of about 5 full grown ones. Had this little one locked in a cage and pretty much tried frightening it to death."

The creature gently poked his snout out though a space between the jacket and her. It's breath showing with the cool air.

"Holy crap." Sturges responded, stepping closer to her to look. The creature quickly ducked back in at the sight of him. "I'm sorry… just usually don't see anyone brave enough to carry even the younger ones."

Avery smirked, holding the creature tighter in her arms.

"Well, either way, guess it's mine now." She said, peering down through an opening. The creature purred as it slowly began to poke its head out again. Sturges slowly reached to touch it, and it began to pull back

"You're alright." She said to it, pulling away some of her jacket to reveal its face.

"Holy crap Avery." He said with a shock. "You've done the impossible." He reached for it again, but stopped with a few inches between them. He was allowing the creature to make its move if it was going to trust Sturges or not. It sniffed away at his hand for a while before gently nudging it, signaling it was ok to touch him.

Sturges stepped a little closer and gently brushed his hand across the top of its head. The creature purring in comfort.

"AVERY!" A familiar voice rang out from behind them. When they turned to look, they saw Danse and Nate running down the hill.

"Where the hell were you?!" Danse yelled in a rage. He was almost to the bottom of the hill before Sturges stepped in between him and Avery to stop him.

"Stop-stop-stop-stop!" He yelled, waving his arms in front. Danse and Nate skidded to a halt and watched him in confusion.

"Sturges, what the hell are you-" Nate reacted the same as Sturges did when he caught glimpse of the creature in her hands. He took a couple steps back in disbelief.

"Is that… is that an actual Deathclaw?" He asked, his voice low and slightly shaken.

Danse peered over Sturges and looked at the creature in disgust.

"What the hell are you thinking Avery?!" Danse tried to pass Sturges, but he still kept himself between them.

"Calm down Danse! It isn't as bad as you'd think!" He tried assuring him. But all Danse did was push him aside.

"Are you kidding me?! You went out on your own just to bring that thing back?!" He said, stomping away in his power armor.

The creature began to cry in fear again, huddling close to Avery for protection. Avery turned her body away from Danse and gave him a glare.

"Gunners slaughtered a nest worth of full grown ones and basically tried torturing him." She explained, making sure to protect the creature. "There was no way after that trauma that I would leave it out there on its own."

"Avery, this is a fucking monster! Not a damn child!" He snapped, stopping just a foot from her. "That creature grows and kills anything in its sight. You're basically putting everyone in danger."

"No I'm not Danse." She said, defending her actions. "It's young enough that it can probably be taught right and wrong. Not only am I doing a solid to take care and raise it, but it can probably be used to defend our people when needed."

"She actually makes a good point Danse." Nate said, slightly agreeing with her.

Danse turned to face Nate and looked at him appalled.

"You actually agree with this nonsense?!" He yelled, pointing at her in the moment. "She went off and we thought she got her ass killed. She risked her life just to save a fucking little monster and you have the nerve to agree with this?!"

"I didn't say I agreed to all of this Danse." He snapped back. "But she's right about it being young and all. If done right, this creature can be an alli-asset to us."

Danse's face began to turn red in anger. He couldn't believe to think he was the only one making sense in his mind. He then returned his sight to Avery and started down hard into her eyes.

"If ONE THING ever happens while you have it, I will be sure to make YOU the one to put it down." He snapped at her in a low tone. "Is That Clear?"

Avery said nothing to him. She just stared back in disbelief with his attitude being as it was like the first time. Instead, all she did was turn her back to him and began to walk off.

"Avery!" Danse yelled to her furiously. "Answer me damn it!"

She continued to ignore him as she carried the creature off to camp. Sturges and Nate eventually followed and left Danse their to steam out his anger on a walk alone.


	21. 21 Brother Retrieval

Danse and Nate went off on a mission without Avery this time. Danse was still upset with her for the deathclaw issue a few days ago.

His anger wasn't fully towards her bring back a deathclaw, even though the idea did disturb him. But his anger was for trailing off the way she did. Yeah, she had the Ameli with her the whole time and knew how to use it well. But the idea of what if lingered in his head the whole time. He wasn't going to back down from his anger until she truly understood his reasoning behind it.

Nate and Danse's mission was to track down an unusual reading from an abandoned grocery store within the city. It wasn't like the ones Danse and his team picked up on with the possibility of the Institute being behind it; those reading were a bigger hell to pick up on if you tried. And when you did, they be gone in a flash.

When Maxson was examining the reports, his opinions was the possibly of a distress signal that was created through a different form. The ones Brotherhood used were strong, but they could only reach so far. Members that were coming in as extra aid to the division after passing training had reported picking up the signal about 5-10 miles before entering the Commonwealth. Of course, there was only one way to find out.

When Danse and Nate arrived to the corner store, everything seemed eery. It was too quiet for such an area; knowing about half a mile down was a set up with Super Mutants. A graveyard a mile back was a good stop for feral ghouls to hang about, but even around here there was nothing. They made sure to take extreme precautions when they entered.

The door eked loudly as Danse pushed it open with the barrel of his gun. Nate kept close behind as they entered. It was still completely quiet. And, like most buildings in the Commonwealth, it had been abandoned since the great war.

A few skeletons were strung about. Debris from electronics and furniture were torn to pieces and scattered upon the floor.

Nate activated his pip-boy to begin tracing the signal once more, moving his arm slowly from one direction to the other and up and down.

"Looks like it's coming from upstairs." Nate said, looking up at the ceiling. "Seems like it's right above us."

Danse nodded and began to take lead again. He was successful in finding a flight of stairs to the next floor but was also greeted by a glowing ghoul.

"Fucking hell!" Danse yelled. He and Nate drew their guns and began firing away. It took them longer than normal, but they did eventually defeat the ghoul. They then waited for a moment at the bottom of the steps, be sure no others were coming to charge them before ascending.

Nate kept the tracker on his pip boy active. They wandered off track a couple times to make sure an area was cleared so that there weren't any surprise jump scares.

After sometime, Nate and Danse finally made their way to the signal's source. They began to open the door, but was surprised to find it locked. Danse was about to kick down the door. But, Nate halted him and began picking at the lock.

"I keep forgetting you know how to do that." Danse said, in a low whisper. "Probably better too in case breaking a door attracted shit we overlooked."

A couple minutes and Nate was successfully. He then traded places with Nate. He stood in front and Nate stood beside the door with his hand on the nob.

He glanced at Danse, who gave him a nod, and quickly pushed the door open. Both of them were a bit surprised to be greeted by darkness.

Danse turned the light on on his helmet and Nate Increased the brightness of his pip-boy. Danse took lead once more and entered the room, Nate followed behind.

The room was surprisingly bigger. It seemed as if it had expanded into the building attached to this one.

Desks and file cabinets and papers left strewn across the room. Some were even stacked upon one another. But, when Nate and Danse began scanning the room, there was one stack set up oddly. Almost as if trying to hide something in the center.

Danse and Nate kept their guns up and ready as they slowly approached, unknowing what they were about to find.

They circled around the fixture cautiously. There was even a moment Nate thought he heard a voice.

"Danse, I think someone's in here…" he whispered to him and leaned one side of his head to the fixture, listening carefully.

The room was silent for a moment for Nate, trying to listen carefully. And then he heard it

"H-h-help… h-help p-p-please…" he heard in a deeply weak voice.

Danse was able to hear it too, and didn't hesitate to start pulling away at the furniture before them.

With no care for the noise now, Danse and Nate were topping over every item they pulled away in order to help the trapped survivor.

A few pieces later and they were both staring at a man. Danse thought the stranger looked awfully familiar but couldn't put a finger on it. Pushing it aside, he bent down to the person and examined him carefully.

"He's barely hanging on." Danse said, turning his attention to Nate. "Please tell me you got a stimpak on ya somewhere."

Nate nodded his head and quickly tore off his backpack and began digging away. After a minute, Nate was finally successful at finding it and handed it over to Danse.

"Help me move him a little." Danse said, gently grabbing the man at one side. Nate came to his aid, and they gently shifted him into a position that Danse could easily insert the stimpak in.

They gave the man sometime. The stimpak seemed to take longer to help than it normally would. But the man's condition, they'd fear that one wrong move could make it all worse.

Eventually the stranger was more alert. He glanced around the room for a moment and then to Nate and Danse.

"T-... Thank you." He said, still struggling to catch a breath. "Nice to see… an actual human face… for once."

"I'm guessing they swarmed ya huh?" Nate said, reaching into his bag for a can of purified water.

"Fuck… not sure where they all went though…" he mutters out. "One minute, I'm climbing into the heap to get away from them… one of them snagging me in the process… probably why I got so damn weak…"

"How long have you been here?" Danse asked.

"Not too long… thankfully." The stranger says. "Been only 3 or 4 days probably."

Nate found the can and popped the tab. "You able or need help with this."

The stranger slightly smirked. He slowly reached for the can and grasped hold of it as tight as he could. Slowly but surely he was able to bring the drink to his lips and get a fee gulps down.

"So what were you doing before you got trapped?" Nate asked.

"Been… been looking…" he muttered more. "Looking for my sister and a friend… my dad sent me and the friend to find her… haven't had luck finding them…"

Danse and Nate looked at one another. They knew the situation all too familiar, and asked him more.

"What… what does your sister and your friend look like?" He slowly asked.

The stranger took another swig before continuing. "Avery… avery's my sister… long reddish-brown hair. Dark brown eyes… tattoo on her wrist… of a purple raindrop." She stopped for a moment, catching his breath some more. Danse and Nate looked at each other once more in surprise.

"And the friend?" Nate asked.

"Oc… Octavia… black hair. Blue eyes… both of them are slim built… just hope their strength has been keeping them up around here."

Danse looked at the man, to Nate and then back at the man. There was no doubt the similarity in looks now; it was one of the 12 brothers.

Danse nodded to Nate, and carefully the two of them began to help the stranger up. Danse then took the stranger completely into his arms to carry him out and ordered Nate to go out and throw a vertibird signal.

"You're still too weak to move on your own, but we gotta get you more help." Danse said as they all began to head out.

"W… where are we going?" The stranger asked.

Danse walked in silence at first, but answered the man once they got outside.

"We're taking you back to the Prydwen." He answered, waiting outside with Nate. "Then, I need to go pick up Avery from Sanctuary. Octavia will be able to come see you sooner though…"


	22. 22 Brotherly conflicts

"Avery!" Danse yelled as he jumped out of the Vertibird.

She was sitting with Mama Murphy, cutting away at some of the fish her and some of the settlers caught earlier; throwing the scraps the the deathclaw she now called Maugwi.

She glanced over at him, then glanced back at her work. She was still upset with him for how he treated her a few days ago.

"Screw up something on your last mission?" She asked with a tone, stabbing the knife hard into the wood of the board.

"Avery, this is important." Danse gave in an orderly tone. "I… We, need you to come back to the Prydwen."

"Oh really?" She said, still with a tone. "And what foolery is it you need me for since you didn't think of needing me on your last mission."

"It's… classified." Danse said. He wanted this to be a bit of a surprise for her. Before leaving, Cade and Octavia had examined over her brother and gave an all cleae that he would eventually recover. "Maxson just request that you return to the ship temporarily."

She shrugged him off, grabbing the knife and going back to her work.

"Well, if that's the case, then why didn't he come for me? Or even send Nate since he even knows how deep in the whole you are with me." She snapped at him, keeping her mind more to the skinning of fishes.

"Avery, please?" Danse said, almost begging. "I just need you to return to the Prydwen. Then you can go back to your fucking attitude and be pissed at me all the time."

" _You damn idiot.."_ He thought to himself, realizing what he just said to her.

Avery turned to face him, and this time she was really pissed.

"MY fucking attitude?" She questioned him, then turned to completely face him. "I'M the only one here with an attitude?"

Danse stood there quiet for a moment, staring down at the ground in slight shame.

Avery gave a light huff and shrugged her shoulders.

"Fine. I'll humor you amd return under Maxson's orders." She said in a huff as she began to walk by him. "And I'll definitely be sure to stay in my fucking attitude, Paladin Danse."

When she called him by his title, it actually hurt him a bit. In the beginning, he had difficulty getting her to say that. Eventually he had just gotten use to it because he began to enjoy her company. But, now that she wasn't wrong for being the only one with a fixed attitude right now, he knew this is how it would be when he was in the dog house.

He eventually turned around and caught up with Avery. They both boarded the vertibird and headed for the Prydwen.

Avery gave Danse the silent treatment the entire ride back. This was also hurting Danse. Again, both of them were acting so stubborn and childish with their anger for one another. But, Danse was so far in that he really gave a damn about it.

 _"Why did ya have to be so right about it Nate_?" He thought to himself as they approached the Prydwen.

The Vertibird latched into one of the landing spots and both had climbed out. Maxson and Octavia were already outside on the main deck as Avery approached the entrance.

"About time you showed up." Octavia said, pushing herself off the railing.

"Sorry." Avery responded, stopping about a yard in front of them. "There was a little more weight than usual on the vertibird so it slowed us down." She glanced back at Danse as she said that. He tried to act like he didn't hear it, but he did.

"Well, now that you are, there's something we need you to come look at for us." Maxson said, beginning to turn around to head in.

"Well, what is it exactly?" Avery asked, beginning to follow.

"Not exactly sure. But Knight Captain Cade is examining it right now." Maxson answered, not turning back to look at her. "He should be finished by now though so that you can have a look."

Avery asked nothing else as they all followed Maxson. They eventually reached one of the medical rooms and Maxson stopped at the door.

He reached one hand out to the handle, and rested it as he said, "I need you to promise me that you won't get too overwhelmed by this." He said. "It is a unique discovery, but you must keep your professionalism please."

"Maxson, can you please just explain to me better what the hell I'm about to see?" She asked.

He didn't answer. Instead, he slowly pushed down on the handle and opened the door. He then gestured the other hand from Avery to the opening, offering her to step in first.

She glanced from Maxson to Octavia, and then to the door. She hesitated at first, but slowly took a step in. Her eyes had locked on the floor of the bed first. She could hear Cade explaining some medical terms to what she assumed was a traumatized patient. But when she finally locked her sight on what actually lied in that bed, it felt like to her that her heart had completely stopped.

A smile had spread across the figures face. He was dressed in some clean garments and a few bandages on his arms. She had been sitting on the side of the bed as Cade had listened to his lungs from the back side.

"Ain't you a fucking sight for sore eyes sissy?" He said, slowly trying to push himself off the bed.

Cade then gently pressed him down on his shoulder to keep him sitting.

"You still aren't strong enough to stand on your own Baxter. You need to take it easy." Cade ordered.

Baxter gently brushed his hands away and began to push himself up.

"You don't understand though." He said as he balanced himself to his feet. "The Hart men will do anything for their only sister. Especially when it's been over 200 years."

Avery was still standing there speechless. Tears were beginning to stream down her face with the disbelief of what she was seeing.

Baxter had finally steadied himself, and held his arms out to Avery.

"Come on." He said with a light chuckle. "I may not be the old man, but surely I deserve a hug?"

Avery bit her lower lip, and began wiping away the tears and they began to pour. She slowly began to push herself towards Baxter and slowly held out her arms.

Instead of Avery being the one to catch Baxter, Baxter had to catch Avery as she almost plunged to him and clinged onto him as if it was her soul.

She began sobbing, feeling the warm embrace of one of her brothers and the warmth of his chest that tried to dry her tears.

He held her close as he shed a couple tears with her and gently kissed her forehead.

"You still look so amazing after 200 years or so sis." He said with a smile and light chuckles.

Avery trying to chuckle in between the sobbing, but she wanted to embrace the happiness. Like Baxter said, he wasn't their father. And she would have done anything for it to be him. But, the fact that it had been someone who has been around her their entire lives, was enough to satisfy her in the moment.

Avery hadn't left Baxter's side for hours until he finally begged her to let him get a proper rest.

The others were sitting in the conference room when Avery came to find them. She had a heavy square object within her hands.

"What's that?" Octavia asked, turning her attention to her. The others followed.

"Baxter said it's the transmitter. The one Nate and Danse were able to trace." She answered, turning the object every other way to observe it.

"That transmitter is highly impressive." Maxson responded as he took a seat at the table. "I would like to examine it sometime to possibly enhance our own."

"Well if you do, you'll have to make a different signal code for it." Avery said, taking a seat between Danse and Nate. "According to Baxter, my father is trying to use a specific signal in order to find us in hopes of a return back to our universe. I think the only problem is, even then, just one alone isn't strong enough."

"So… What's your plan?" Danse asked, trying to play a part in the conversation.

"I'm not exactly sure… the technology he used for this is only available in my universe. So the idea of building multiple or making the transmission higher with just one seems completely impossible." Avery answered. Her tone was a sound of disappointment as she tossed the transmitter on the table and placing her hands to her forehead.

"I'm afraid to ask… but that's a bad thing, isn't it?" Danse followed with.

Avery sighed, then rested her hands down on the table.

"Almost everyone we know… is apart of the retrieval process…" she said softly. "Each is given one month to find me and hopefully the others before them and return home." Her tone was beginning to sound upset as she looked over at Octavia. "And I wanna know when the fuck you planned on telling me this!"

Octavia gulped in a bit of fear. True, this was something she was hiding from Avery since they met for the first time in a long time. But, she felt like there needed to be a better time to explain.

"I was hoping when Baxter arrived, that a solution would have been found to get us back." She admitted. She was about to continue, until Avery cut in.

She pushed away from the table and jumped to her feet. "So you even fucking knew Baxter was the next to show up, and you didn't think of bothering to tell me?!"

"Yes, I knew… but I was afraid if I told you, it would worry you too much." Octavia answered, trying to defend herself.

"No, he just almost died out there looking for my ass while you didn't even let Danse, Maxson or Nate know of this to keep a better eye out for him to be sure be made it safe." Avery snapped back at her. "Well Baxter told me who the next is. And even before your stupidity, I was going to inform you that the next to come for us is your older brother Severus."

Octavia looked up in shock with the sudden information. Her brother was the only blood relative she had left in her life after their mother died and their father abandoned them. He was all she had..

Avery turned her direction to Maxson and began asking things of him.

"Since you already have those in charge of these things, within 20 days, can you begin to have your men keep an eye out for the next transmission signal?" She asked him.

"Well, of course. It's nothing you had to ask of A-" he said, til she cut him off.

"Thank you Maxson." She responded. The room was quiet for a moment until she turned her attention back to Octavia. She now sat in shame for the moment.

Avery then walked over to her, and bent towards her a little.

"Just because I only have 12 of them, doesn't mean that I wouldn't be heartbroken to find out one of them was hurt or dead." She said, trying to keep her attention in some of Octavia's sight. She then pushed away from the table again and headed for the door; eventually slamming it behind her once there.


	23. 23 Heartbreak remains

Nate had requested Avery to travel with him to Diamond City for a few things. As much as she didn't want to be far from her brother at this time, she eventually agreed.

Avery and Nate began descending the stairs. They were greeted to the calling sound of Nat Wright, the chief editor and writer's younger sister of Publik Occurrences. They eventually could hear the chattering of the city market's exchanges and trades and so forth similar descriptions. But they weren't here for a pretty gun or another shipment of circuits.

Nate had notified her their reason for being here was to talk with the city's detective in continuing the search for his son. About a week or so ago, he had already stopped in as suggested. But, he ended up having to rescue the detective in the beginning process. After rounding a couple corners and down a outdoor corridor, they were greeted with an illuminated fluorescent sign spelling out: Valentine's Detective Agency.

Nate took lead to entering the office, and Avery had followed behind. They were greeted with the friendly face of the secretary, Ellie.

"Nick's out on a mission again Ellie?" Nate asked, taking a seat.

"Nah, he just went to Arturo for a few parts for his hand. Somehow one of the screws came loose and wasn't able to get his index finger to reattach. He should be back soon though." She told him, going back to poking through a filing cabinet.

Avery began to feel uneasy. Nate, nor anyone else at the time, were aware that the sudden name put together actually meant something to Avery. This name was something of a far distant memory to her… And a more bitter than it was sweet of a memory.

She leaned down next to Nate and whispered only loud enough for him to hear.

"This… this detective… is, he a synth?" She asked nervously.

Nate turned around to face Avery in surprise.

"Out of all people, I didn't expect you to be the kind to fear a synth." He said a little loudly. Ellie turned to focus on them.

"No-no-no-no… that's not what I'm getting at Nate…" she muttered, feeling nervous now. She really couldn't explain to them her reasoning. It wasn't the best time or place for this.

"I'm sorry… I'm gonna go wait out in the market for you Nate…" she muttered, beginning to head to the door.

The door was a bit easier than expected when she began to turn the handle. She just didn't realize that the detective was just waiting on the other side.

"Well, evening ma'am." Nick had greeted her with that cheerful and kind personality as he tried to with everyone else.

Avery froze in shock for a moment and took a couple steps back from the door.

She didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to really act around him. She just stood there in silence like a wide eyes deer in headlights.

"Are you alright ma'am?" Nick asked, waving the uncovered hand between their faces. "Anything I can help you with?"

"I… uh, no... " she got herself to mumble as she stepped further away from Nick. "I'm… uh, just here with…" she continued, pointing over to Nate.

Nick leaned to one side and caught glimpse of Nate, sitting in a chair.

"Ah, about time you came back Nick! Excuse me ma'am." He said politely. Avery then moved out of his way as he had asked to allow him to pass.

She felt ill. Both in a physical and mental state. They could see this is uncomfortable to her, but there is so much more to it than they could even imagine. For Nick, it was something he'd never remember.

Avery returned her front to the door and began to head out while spatting out, "I'm sorry… please excuse me." She didn't give them a moment to respond as she quickly closed the door behind her.

She couldn't move again for a moment. She was trying to process everything through her head. Everything had rushed at her like an oncoming train and she feared she couldn't handle it.

She worked herself to begin to leave, stopping by a couple guards, Arturo and Nat to ask them to make Nate aware that she had left to return to the Prydwen. She didn't give them a reason to either. She left as soon as she could.

Several hours had past and Avery was only halfway home. She hoped the walk by herself would clear everything up and get her time to gather herself, but it didn't seem to.

"It's been over 200 years… and then recent would say about 50. How could you not let this go?" She thought to herself. But over and over she had repeated the bitter of the sweet memories she had of the past. Over and over and over like a broken record.

At one point if her return home. She was greeted by a tiny group of raiders. They were just standing out in the open on a bridge that would help her get home.

"Sorry miss." One of them grunted as he finished lighting a cigarette. "Gotta pay a toll. 300 caps."

Avery sighed. She was already ill ridden with the sudden trigger of her past. Her mood had no time for this bullshit.

"50 caps." She clapped back.

"Ha! No way in hell dolly! 300 caps!" He yells again, the three of them beginning to draw their guns. "Or we just kill ya and take all your shit!"

Avery rolled her eyes as she began removing her bag off her back to pull the Ameli to her front. Without warning, she fired a shot each at the raiders. She didn't shoot to kill them. But she aimed at their hands, causing them to scream in pain and drop their weapons.

"Now, since I was nice enough to not murder you and take your shit away." She said, returning her things to where they were before. "I suggest you let me through for free and you get the high flying fuck out of here before I do kill ya. Seem like a fair enough price?"

The raiders had continued to yell and scream in pain, not even noticing Avery as she strolled on by.

Another couple hours later, and Avery had finally returned to the Prydwen. When aboard, Danse had been waiting up for her.

"Avery, thank god you made it back safe." He said, jumping out of his seat and heading towards her. "Nate told me that you were returning on your own, and I wasn't sure where to find you." But she said nothing as she continued to walk past him as if he wasn't there.

"Avery, what's wrong?" He had concerned, reaching out for her hand. But when she felt even the lightest touch of him she quickly pulled away and continued.

"I really don't want to talk about it Danse." She answered, heading for her chambers for the night.

Danse had wanted to follow. But, for once, he could sense such a darkness that he didn't want to rip out of her so quickly in fear of how she would respond. Instead, he sighed to himself and returned to his quarters.

When Avery reached her room, she slammed the door shut behind her. She threw her things off of her and into a corner. Then, she sat herself down on the edge of the bed, and rested her head in her hands.

The memories were growing stronger again. For so long, she had worked so hard to push the memories away and forget about them all together. But, after seeing him… knowing that he did make it out… it began to devastate her.

She slowly pushed herself off the bed and walked to her desk; she also had pulled out a key from her pocket that opened a drawer in it. She shuffled around the bottom for a moment, finding a latch that opened a hidden compartment. She reached in with the other hand, and carefully pulled out a black tablet. She then closed the door and returned to her bed, this time she sat on the floor and leaned against it.

With a couple of taps, the front lit up. With a few more and a couple of swipes, Avery had pulled up an old video clip.

In the freeze frame for the intro, stood Avery in earlier years. She was wearing an elegant ball gown of white with gold trimming. A gentleman stood with her, holding her close to him.

When she began the video, they were swept away with the music. They smiled at one another. They laughed with one another. He twirled her around and then pulled her back to him and she giggled when his hand grasped at her waist once more.

The audio was clear, hearing the man she danced the night away with quoting a work of Edgar Allen Poe to her.

" _For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams, Of the beautiful Annabel Lee_." He began with. It was easy to see that she had began to blush.

" _And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes, Of the beautiful Annabel Lee. And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side_." he spun her a few times, but eventually let go. When she had returned to face him, he had dropped down to one knee and held a box in his hand.

 _"Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea— In her tomb by the sounding sea…"_

Avery continued watching, as tears were pouring down her face in sorrow silence. She held tight to the edges of the tablet as the clip continued.

 _"Avery… this may sound cheesy; I'm no Edgar Allen Poe but, be more than Mrs. Valentine. Be my Valentine ever February. Be my reason to look forward of starting the day. Be the reason I look forward to coming home at night."_

Eventually, everyone in the room had stopped to notice the gentleman who was pouring his heart and soul to the then-Avery.

 _"Continue, to be the maiden, who lived with no other thought.. Than to be loved, and be loved by me, in a Kingdom by the sea."_

The man had then opened the tiny box, revealing a elegant ring; the base being gold, and the stones and metals around it forming the shape and colors of a red rose with its few leaves.

 _"Avery… I'm already crazy about you, and I always will be… But, I will go mad, if you refuse to marry me…"_

Avery had stopped the video suddenly and began wiping her sleeve on her face. She sat there in pity and misery, as she threw the tablet over to the other side of the room. She then pulled her legs to her chest, continuing to cry and trying to take deep breaths.

She was working herself down before doing what she thought best… but Danse stood in that way for a moment.

Nick had brought up the past… because he was part of it. And even though, Danse had been terribly rough around the edges at first, she could tell he grew to care for Avery the way Nick had in the past… once, long before the great war… and twice, before she fled the institute.

This troubled her deeply. She had grown to trust Danse more than anyone in this universe… even more than she ever trusted Nick. And, even though Danse took the news easy of her true home and her time of existence, there was more burdens to bare, that she knew even Danse wouldn't be able to contain.

After sometime, Avery had finally collected herself enough to reach for a small wooden box that slept underneath her. She laid her legs flat out and rested the box upon them. When opened, it was revealed to contain 5 syringes and a glass bottle labeled "Test serum AX-6718."

She began to ready a needle, but was once again being riddled by moments with Danse. Both past and what she wanted as the present. She fought them off once more, and completely pushed them back into a mental safe, along with all the others that haunted her.

"I still can not face that horror of torment ever again… no matter how much I want it…"

*Authors note: there will be a side story posted separately from this main storyline that goes further into Avery's history with Nick Valentine. I HIGHLY SUGGEST READING IT BEFORE MOVING ON TO THE NEXT CHAPTER.

What I also plan with this is every time a new chapter needs to be added to Nick and Avery's storyline, I will continue to leave footnotes like this stating which chapter you need to read to keep up!


End file.
